Chaos has attacked the Top 25 this week. On the women’s side, the voters keep trying new and different combinations of teams to make up the body of the poll, while on the men’s side there is unprecedented confusion as to who the #1 team should be.
With defending men’s champion Amherst falling at the hands of then-#3 Brandeis, which in turn had been upset by Mass.-Dartmouth earlier in the week, there was room for a new #1 in the Week 3 poll. Approximately half of the voters agreed that it should be former #2 Rochester, enough to propel the Yellow Jackets into the top slot for the third time in program history. The other twelve voters, however, could only agree that Rochester was not the top team; who the #1 team should be drew a record number of responses. Never before in the history of the men’s Top 25 poll have the voters been in such furious disagreement over the top spot, doling out #1 votes to a record seven different teams. The previous record was six, and if one restricts the analysis to regular season polls, the #1 vote has never been split more than five ways before this week. One of the #1 votes went to UW-Oshkosh, a team that received a grand total of 12 vote-points last week—the equivalent of one vote for #14, or twelve votes for #25—but scored an impressive victory over then-#6 UW-Whitewater.
On the distaff side, the top of the poll contains a number of the usual suspects, including Mary Washington, perched atop the poll for the fourth consecutive week, and longtime poll stalwarts #8 Southern Maine and #4 Messiah, members of the 81 and 78 consecutive Top 25s, respectively. In fact, seven of the teams ranked in the top nine positions have been in the Top 25 since the middle of the 2005-06 season (or longer.) But this picture changes dramatically, starting with #10 Thomas More, a member of the Top 25 for just the sixth time in program history. None of the teams ranked #10 or lower has a current stay in the Top 25 longer than five consecutive polls. Five teams in this group (those ranked #20-#24) are new to the Top 25 this week, including #20 Tufts, making its Top 25 debut.
With teams now moving into final exams and holiday breaks, the number of games drops off dramatically. It seems likely that confusion will continue to reign over the polls as we move into the new year and begin conference play in earnest.
Debutantes:
Women: #10 Thomas More is off to a 7-0 start, which includes wins over #7 DePauw and #22 Wilmington. As a result, the Saints cracked the Top 10 for the first time in program history. #20 Tufts has parlayed a 9-0 start into a first-ever berth in the Top 25. Congratulations to the Saints and the Jumbos!
Men: In the same week that Rochester ascends to the top of the poll, conference mate Case Western Reserve receives a Top 25 vote, becoming the eighth and final UAA squad to enter the all-time list of vote-getters. Congratulations to the Spartans!
Streakers:
Women: #25 Puget Sound extends their streak of Top 25 appearances to 25 weeks. Fourth-ranked Messiah receives votes in the 110th consecutive poll. Both Scranton and Wash. U. received votes, extending their perfect streaks to 128 weeks, but for the first time in poll history neither squad is in the Top 25. Calvin is also not in the Top 25, snapping a string of 18 weeks. And for the first time in 98 weeks, Bowdoin did not receive a single Top 25 vote.
Men: #18 Virginia Wesleyan fell out of the Top 10 for the first time in 22 weeks, but extended their string of voter-roll appearances to 30 weeks. #23 Wooster is a member of the Top 25 for the 80th consecutive week.
Milestones:
Women: Hope moves up to #2 this week, extending their string of Top 10 appearances to 60 weeks and marking their 120th week as a vote-getter. #12 Kean is among the vote-getters for the 25th time, while Amherst received votes for the 10th time.
Men: Third-ranked UW-Stevens Point has now received votes in 120 of the 127 men’s polls, while Nazareth is a vote-getter for the 10th time. Augustana’s #9 ranking marks the twentieth time that they have been a Top 10 team.
High-Water Marks:
Women: Sixth-ranked UW-Whitewater, Top 10 debutante Thomas More, #19 Oglethorpe, and Top 25 debutante Tufts all achieved highest-ever rankings this week. #9 McMurry matched their high mark, the fifth time they have been the ninth-ranked team in the women’s poll.
Men: In defeating the then-top ranked team, #2 Brandeis ascends to their highest-ever ranking. #16 Stevens reached a new poll high for the fifth consecutive week. Mary Hardin-Baylor repeated their #5 ranking of a week ago, matching their all-time high.
Movers and Shakers:
Women: For the second straight week, the primary movement in the women’s poll was provided by those in freefall. #5 Kean was upended by William Paterson and consequently lost 202 poll points, falling seven spots. Wash. U. suffered their third defeat, falling out of their #18 slot and shedding 171 of their 179 points. Most of the other Top 25 teams of a week ago merely bubbled up in the wake of these capsizes, with the largest gain being made by #19 Oglethorpe (+76 points/+6 places).
Men: Unbeaten UW-Oshkosh knocked off last week’s big mover, #11 UW-Whitewater, and soared into the #13 slot with a gain of 321 points. Helping to make room for the Titans were #18 Virginia Wesleyan, which dropped 192 points and 9 slots, and Keene St., which shed 216 points and fell from the #16 slot into the “others receiving votes” category.
David, thanks for doing this, as always — the research on the Top 25 poll is invaluable.
Is 575 the lowest number of points for a men’s No. 1? I only have the polls computerized back to the 2003-04 preseason and I know it’s the lowest since then.
In fact, it is. The previous low was 579, received by Calvin in the 2000-01 preseason poll. As far as regular season polls are concerned, the previous low was the 589 points earned by Randolph-Macon in Week 7 of the 2001-02 season. Good catch!
In a perfect Top 25, 25 votes for #3 gets you 575 points.
That is lots of indecision at the top.
This should be a wide open season!
Good point, Ralph. Looking at that another way, Rochester got 13 votes for #1, which equates to 325 points (=13*25). The other 12 voters provided the other 250 points, which means Rochester was between #5 and #6 on the average ballot for these voters. That’s not just indecision, that’s practically schizophrenia!
“Men: In the same week that Rochester ascends to the top of the poll, conference mate Case Western Reserve receives a Top 25 vote, becoming the eighth and final UAA squad to enter the all-time list of vote-getters. Congratulations to the Spartans!”
That’s a real interesting fact. Can you come up with how many conferences have had every member receive votes at one time or another? I would guess the CCIW and the WIAC off the top of my head. I’m not sure if Superior would have made it in the past.
Sounds like the makings of a good contest. If only I had prizes to offer!
My database is a little behind the times on conference affiliation, so I can’t guarantee 100% accuracy. But this much I can tell you: these conferences have had every men’s team receive points at one time or another since the poll was first published in 1999:
Heartland (HCAC)
New Jersey (NJAC)
Ohio (OAC)
Wisconsin (WIAC)
University (UAA)
Superior has made 15 appearances, mostly in the 2000-01 season. Millikin of the CCIW has never received a vote; neither has Middlebury of the NESCAC nor Hartwick of the E8. There may be others that are complete or just one off; this is especially true of newly constituted or reconstituted conferences like the Landmark. I’m sure we’d all appreciate any updates or corrections to this list from anyone, and I can use my database to verify any guesses.
All eight schools in the UAA have appeared in the women’s poll voting as well, but a quick glance at the voting records suggests to me that they may be the only conference that can make this claim.
Yes, David! For every 3rd place vote for Rochester, there is a matching 9th place vote! Or two #3’s and a 15th!
Schizophrenia!
Here’s a question.
Has there ever been a team with a number 1 vote not in the top 10 before? I’m pretty sure I know the answer to this question.
Would it be possible to come up with a list of all-time #1 votes list, or total points list?
I don’t track #1 votes (i.e. it’s not an element in my spreadsheet), so although this question could be answered, it would involve paging back through the polls one at a time. Feel free. 😉 My guess would be that yes, this has happened before, probably in a preseason poll.
EDIT: I found one in the second place I looked: Williams was ranked #11 in the 2002-03 preseason poll and received one #1 vote.
Again, as to #1 votes, possible but manual. Maybe this offseason I’ll add #1 votes to my sheet. I’ve always resisted discussing total points, since it is basically meaningless, but I do have that information. The top 5 all time in total points are as follows:
Men (127 polls):
1. Wooster 55,717
2. UW-Stevens Point 46,925
3. Amherst 40,213
4. Hampden-Sydney 36,698
5. Wittenberg 30,301
Women (128 polls):
1. Washington U. 62,516
2. Scranton 52,965
3. Bowdoin 51,152
4. Southern Maine 43,284
5. Hope 40,698
Anyone else think it was funny that first five women’s teams on the outside of the Top 25 are, in order:
Calvin, Carthage, Chicago, Carroll, Capital.
Anyone? Just me then…
I think it can only be a good sign for Curry, Centre, Colby, Clark and Cabrini.
I’ve done some further research into #1 votes, and now can answer sac’s question:
Men:
1. UW-Stevens Point 494
2. Carthage 427
3. Washington U. 317
4. Williams 301
5. Wooster 245
A total of 37 men’s teams have received #1 votes in the 127 polls.
Women:
1. Washington U. 1,201
2. Bowdoin 562
3. Southern Maine 227
4. Hope 143
5. Trinity (TX) 107
A total of 33 women’s teams have received #1 votes in the 128 polls.
David,
I’m not about to question your methods… because I think the results you have are correct. But could you interpret them for us? I’m not sure how UWSP can have 494 first place votes in 127 total polls…?
Thanks!
There are 25 votes first-place votes in every poll (one from each voter), which means there has been 3,150 total first-place votes in men’s polls and 3,175 in women’s polls.
What’s amazing about that is that Wash U has been listed at number one on nearly 38% of the all-time total BALLOTS for the women’s poll!
What he said. 🙂 Those 494 first-place votes have resulted in the Pointers being ranked #1 twenty times over the 8+ years of the poll, second only to Carthage’s 22. The Wash U. women have been #1 53 times, 19 times unanimously.
… that makes perfect sense now!
Does anyone know much about Stevens, as they seem to be the new to the top 25?