D1 Men Rankings

[DU-fan]

The media has a bias to the ACC

Well, yeah.

The ACCs have a combined 25 national titles.
4 of the 5 ACC teams have multiple national titles.

I'm not arguing that the ACC has great teams and a rich history of national championships. The Gaits and Powells are my heros.

But, I do think Syracuse, Notre Dame, and Virginia are over rated this year. Syracuse and Virginia's performance in multiple out of conference head to head games is evidence that they belong outside of the the top 5. Notre Dame plays a style that lets them dominate and go on big goal scoring streaks. They have great face off guys and play make it, take it. But, their only quality win is Syracuse which is ranked 9th. When I look at the puts and takes for ND vs DU, I don't see them above Denver and I would love to hear an objective argument to prove me wrong.

However, there is not enough to sway everyone in the media based on their preconceived opinions. I love the Anchoring (cognitive bias) post. It is very true.

Rankings only really matter on selection day Sunday when a team gets knocked out of the tournament due to bias. The media poll also does not matter. But, the coaches poll does matter more this year than ever as the selection committee will need to rely on it.

[BigTom4]

When I look at the puts and takes for ND vs DU, I don't see them above Denver and I would love to hear an objective argument to prove me wrong.

Denver offense looked pretty pedestrian versus the two athletic ACC defenses they went up against. Didn't look like they had the athleticism to run by their man consistently. ND's defense would pose similar issues.

Denver's defense is comparable to Cuse's (one strong d-mid, average poles), and ND did ok against that unit. ND has an advantage at goalie and both teams are very strong at the X. Based off of eye test, I'd go with ND.

When it comes to what they've accomplished, ND beat the #9 convincingly and Denver beat #10 Georgetown convincingly. I'd suggest the ND win was more impressive because it was on the road and G-town had some pretty crazy travel issues leading up to their game. ND has a 1 goal loss to UVA, Denver has a 2 goal loss to Duke and an 11 goal loss to UNC. Based off of results so far, I'd go with ND.

ESPN may have an ACC bias, but you have an anti-ACC bias. The truth falls somewhere in the middle.

[blue angels]

The media has a bias to the ACC

Well, yeah.

The ACCs have a combined 25 national titles.
4 of the 5 ACC teams have multiple national titles.

I'm not arguing that the ACC has great teams and a rich history of national championships. The Gaits and Powells are my heros.

But, I do think Syracuse, Notre Dame, and Virginia are over rated this year. Syracuse and Virginia's performance in multiple out of conference head to head games is evidence that they belong outside of the the top 5. Notre Dame plays a style that lets them dominate and go on big goal scoring streaks. They have great face off guys and play make it, take it. But, their only quality win is Syracuse which is ranked 9th. When I look at the puts and takes for ND vs DU, I don't see them above Denver and I would love to hear an objective argument to prove me wrong.

However, there is not enough to sway everyone in the media based on their preconceived opinions. I love the Anchoring (cognitive bias) post. It is very true.

Rankings only really matter on selection day Sunday when a team gets knocked out of the tournament due to bias. The media poll also does not matter. But, the coaches poll does matter more this year than ever as the selection committee will need to rely on it.

OK....... so Duke, UNC, Maryland are top 3. Then Who should be ranked ahead of the other ACC teams, in what order and why? You also need facts to support your rankings like Top 10, Top 20 wins if you want to be considered unbiased...Otherwise, this is just another homer post.........

[Matnum PI]

OK....... so Duke, UNC, Maryland are top 3. Then Who should be ranked ahead of the other ACC teams, in what order and why? You also need facts to support your rankings like Top 10, Top 20 wins if you want to be considered unbiased...Otherwise, this is just another homer post.........

Notre Dame shouldn't be in the Top 10... Yet. They won one big game. But whatever. I'm sure they'll do what they need to do soon enough. (or maybe they won't.) Either way, both Lehigh and Rutgers should be ahead of Syracuse.

[wgdsr]

OK....... so Duke, UNC, Maryland are top 3. Then Who should be ranked ahead of the other ACC teams, in what order and why? You also need facts to support your rankings like Top 10, Top 20 wins if you want to be considered unbiased...Otherwise, this is just another homer post.........

Notre Dame shouldn't be in the Top 10... Yet. They won one big game. But whatever. I'm sure they'll do what they need to do soon enough. (or maybe they won't.) Either way, both Lehigh and Rutgers should be ahead of Syracuse.

on denver's resume is... georgetown?
and rutgers has beaten... ohio state twice? that's about as charitable as you can get.

lehigh and virginia should be 4 and 5 in any order. then you can flip a coin on denver, notre dame, and army. probably denver then army, nd for being deeper into the schedule. after that rutgers, gtown or syracuse in any order.

[DU-fan]

OK....... so Duke, UNC, Maryland are top 3. Then Who should be ranked ahead of the other ACC teams, in what order and why? You also need facts to support your rankings like Top 10, Top 20 wins if you want to be considered unbiased...Otherwise, this is just another homer post.........

Notre Dame shouldn't be in the Top 10... Yet. They won one big game. But whatever. I'm sure they'll do what they need to do soon enough. (or maybe they won't.) Either way, both Lehigh and Rutgers should be ahead of Syracuse.

on denver's resume is... georgetown?
and rutgers has beaten... ohio state twice? that's about as charitable as you can get.

lehigh and virginia should be 4 and 5 in any order. then you can flip a coin on denver, notre dame, and army. probably denver then army, nd for being deeper into the schedule. after that rutgers, gtown or syracuse in any order.

These are interesting debates.

ND - I already provided a very detailed comparison of Denver vs. ND on the last page of this forum so I will not repeat it again. But, I think it is very fact based and objective. They are a great team, but not the #4 team in the country this week.

UVA - They have a dynamic offense. Amazing game in transition and one of the most fun to watch. Rode is a great goalie. They have a young athletic defense that is starting to gel and get better every game. The struggled to clear the ball and almost lost to Highpoint and Robert Morris. They won the games so people will discount it. And for all intensive purposes, a win is a win. Virginia has quality wins against ND, Loyola, and Army. So they need to ranked about all those teams. And they are. They lost to Syracuse so perhaps they should be ranked below SU. They are not.

Denver - Beat Georgetown. Georgetown was tired, exhausted from a road trip and late night travel. In the first week of the season, Denver lost to UNC. They were tired, and exhausted from a road trip and giving up a solid lead over Duke two days prior. They made multiple coaching mistakes and looked bad. Traveling is part of the game. Their only losses are to Duke and UNC. They should be ranked below them. And they are.

Lehigh - They are a very good team. Their first quality win is Army. Loyola is a good win, but similar to the UVA win, how good is Loyola? Loyola losing to Towson is really hard to understand. It hurt Virginia and Lehigh. Wins over NJIT, Bucknell, and Colgate do not make you the #4 team this week. They need to be ranked above Army and Loyola. And they are.

[wgdsr]

OK....... so Duke, UNC, Maryland are top 3. Then Who should be ranked ahead of the other ACC teams, in what order and why? You also need facts to support your rankings like Top 10, Top 20 wins if you want to be considered unbiased...Otherwise, this is just another homer post.........

Notre Dame shouldn't be in the Top 10... Yet. They won one big game. But whatever. I'm sure they'll do what they need to do soon enough. (or maybe they won't.) Either way, both Lehigh and Rutgers should be ahead of Syracuse.

on denver's resume is... georgetown?
and rutgers has beaten... ohio state twice? that's about as charitable as you can get.

lehigh and virginia should be 4 and 5 in any order. then you can flip a coin on denver, notre dame, and army. probably denver then army, nd for being deeper into the schedule. after that rutgers, gtown or syracuse in any order.

These are interesting debates.

ND - I already provided a very detailed comparison of Denver vs. ND on the last page of this forum so I will not repeat it again. But, I think it is very fact based and objective. They are a great team, but not the #4 team in the country this week.

UVA - They have a dynamic offense. Amazing game in transition and one of the most fun to watch. Rode is a great goalie. They have a young athletic defense that is starting to gel and get better every game. The struggled to clear the ball and almost lost to Highpoint and Robert Morris. They won the games so people will discount it. And for all intensive purposes, a win is a win. Virginia has quality wins against ND, Loyola, and Army. So they need to ranked about all those teams. And they are. They lost to Syracuse so perhaps they should be ranked below SU. They are not.

Denver - Beat Georgetown. Georgetown was tired, exhausted from a road trip and late night travel. In the first week of the season, Denver lost to UNC. They were tired, and exhausted from a road trip and giving up a solid lead over Duke two days prior. They made multiple coaching mistakes and looked bad. Traveling is part of the game. Their only losses are to Duke and UNC. They should be ranked below them. And they are.

Lehigh - They are a very good team. Their first quality win is Army. Loyola is a good win, but similar to the UVA win, how good is Loyola? Loyola losing to Towson is really hard to understand. It hurt Virginia and Lehigh. Wins over NJIT, Bucknell, and Colgate do not make you the #4 team this week. They need to be ranked above Army and Loyola. And they are.

hey, everybody gets their takes!
mine starts with a compilation of wins and weighs that against losses next.

it's a bit strange you ding teams' lower class wins and yet you elevate du. whose wins are nothing to write home about save for 1. lehigh has another top 20 win and an equal or better win. and is undefeated.

you like highest ranked losses it seems. so be it. i like teams with the squads they actually beat.

ftr, i think du, lehigh, nd and maybe uva are teams that the golden 3 aren't going to be pumped about seeing at the x. and will not be surprised in the least if we're talking about how 1 or more of them just weren't able to overcome a possession disadvantage.

[Mr3Putt]

Some debate about Maryland deserving of a #1 ranking. I think Duke deserves the top spot. Other then Syracuse, I think Maryland loses the face off battle with Duke, VA, UNC, and ND. MD looks great, but face-offs is where the divide may be.

[PulpExposure]

Some debate about Maryland deserving of a #1 ranking. I think Duke deserves the top spot. Other then Syracuse, I think Maryland loses the face off battle with Duke, VA, UNC, and ND. MD looks great, but face-offs is where the divide may be.

Most likely...but Maryland's defense is a step better than everyone's. There's just not a weak link on the defense.

[DU-fan]

This is a tough ranking and I suspect there will be lots of debate on the #1. It is also tough on the 12-20 ranking as well.

My guess on Monday's media poll.

Rank Team
1 Maryland (8 - 0) Beat Michigan
2 Notre Dame (6 - 1) Beat Duke
3 Virginia (9 - 2) Beat UNC
4 Duke (10 - 1) Lost to ND
5 North Carolina (8 - 2) Lost to UVA
6 Denver (9 - 2) Beat Nova
7 Lehigh (6 - 0) Beat Navy
8 Rutgers (6 - 2) Beat PSU
9 Syracuse (5 - 3) Beat Albany
10 Georgetown (8 - 1) Beat Marquette
11 Army (5 - 2) Beat Loyola
12 Ohio State (4 - 4) Beat JHU
13 Loyola (5 - 4) Lost to Army
14 Richmond (4 - 4) Did not play
15 Drexel (5-2) Beat Delaware
16 Stony Brook (7 - 3) Beat NJIT
17 Delaware (7 - 2) Lost to Drexel
18 Hofstra (6 - 2) Beat UMass
19 Vermont (5 - 3) Beat UMass-Lowell
20 Albany (6-3) Beat UMBC
21 Navy (3 - 2) Lost to Lehigh
22 Villanova (4 - 3) Lost to Denver
23 UMBC (5 - 2) Lost to Albany
24 Bryant (5-2) Did not play

[Wheels]

This is a tough ranking and I suspect there will be lots of debate on the #1. It is also tough on the 12-20 ranking as well.

My guess on Monday's media poll.

It's all a jumble after Army, isn't it?

[DU-fan]

I was pretty close. Differences: Army is above Georgetown, Drexel is above Loyola, and few more 12-20 differences. I agree with Wheels that that is is a jumble from 12 on.

https://www.insidelacrosse.com/league/DI/polls

Division I Media Poll
Rank Team Points Prev
1 Maryland (8 - 0) 418 (19) 2
2 Notre Dame (6 - 1) 394 (2) 4
3 Virginia (9 - 2) 369 6
4 Duke (10 - 1) 363 1
5 North Carolina (8 - 2) 332 3
6 Denver (9 - 2) 305 5
7 Lehigh (6 - 0) 288 7
8 Rutgers (6 - 2) 273 8
9 Syracuse (5 - 3) 261 9
10 Army (5 - 2) 240 10
11 Georgetown (8 - 1) 222 10
12 Ohio State (4 - 4) 143 14
13 Drexel (5 - 2) 131 22
14 Loyola (5 - 4) 121 13
15 Hofstra (6 - 2) 105 18
16 Delaware (7 - 2) 97 12
17 Richmond (4 - 4) 91 15
18 Stony Brook (7 - 3) 85 17
19 UAlbany (6 - 3) 49 23
20 Vermont (5 - 3) 40 24
Receiving Votes:

UMBC, Villanova, Boston U, Jacksonville, Bryant, UMass, Michigan, Robert Morris, Navy, LIU, Saint Joseph's, Marist, Monmouth

[RURICK]

I love reading all the biased opinions regarding the rankings of the respective teams that each person supports. It indicates that the only conclusive way to know for sure where each team should be ranked is to play one more round in the tourney and allow the teams to decide on the field. No big deal unless you are in the ACC and virtually every year you are guaranteed a spot in the tourney, or should I say 5 of the 8 at large berths, lol. All else is BS.

[DU-fan]

I think this will be the media poll on Monday.

Rank
1 Maryland (9 - 0) Beat OSU
2 Notre Dame (6 - 1) Did not play
3 Duke (11 - 1) Beat UVA
4 North Carolina (9 - 2) Beat SU
5 Virginia (10 - 3) Lost to Duke, Beat Utah
6 Georgetown (9 - 1) Beat Denver
7 Lehigh (7 - 0) Beat Lafayette twice
8 Denver (9 - 3) Lost to Georgetown
9 Rutgers (7 - 2) Beat JHU
10 Army (6 - 2) Beat BU
11 Syracuse (5 - 4) Lost to UNC
12 Drexel (6 - 2) Beat Fairfield
13 Delaware (8 - 2) Beat Hofstra
14 Navy (4 - 2) Beat Loyola
15 Ohio State (4 - 5) Lost to UMD
16 Loyola (5 - 5) Lost to Navy
17 Richmond (5 - 4) Beat Jacksonville
18 Stony Brook (8 - 3) Beat Binghamton
19 UAlbany (6 - 3) Did not play
20 Hofstra (6 - 4) Lost to Delaware

[wgdsr]

I love reading all the biased opinions regarding the rankings of the respective teams that each person supports. It indicates that the only conclusive way to know for sure where each team should be ranked is to play one more round in the tourney and allow the teams to decide on the field. No big deal unless you are in the ACC and virtually every year you are guaranteed a spot in the tourney, or should I say 5 of the 8 at large berths, lol. All else is BS.

yes, the acc is very good. but the rest is fodder for message board posts. and so here we are.

[calourie]

Syracuse loses its' next two and I'd wager they miss the big dance. Two away games at Virginia and Notre Dame. Win one and they are in, but they will certainly have to play better than they have shown recently to make that happen.

[Mr3Putt]

Syracuse is not playing well but has a top5 win over Virginia. Rutgers walks on water at 7-2, with conference wins over mediocre teams and is ranked top10. Rutgers in the conference tournament will be interesting. Losing early could be a problem.

[FlyEaglesFly]

I wonder if Cuse somehow schedules a game for May 8 now if they need to get to .500. I thought I saw they were scheduled to play Utah - but that seems to have been cancelled.

If they lose to UVA and ND it puts them at 5-6.

[Kikin]

Giving a different perspective, is the ACC full of great teams or a group of good teams? If they are all able to beat each other on a given day, is any of them actually a GREAT team? I don't know but is it a possibility that we are over rating the ACC as a conference because everyone keeps saying there are multiple great teams. Is ACC getting extra credit based on historical context? Could it be that it is a group of above average teams capable of catching the other one on any given day?

Rutgers deserves credit for how well they played Maryland twice, which is the #1 team, putting Rutgers in my mind in the 4 to 6 range in the rankings.

[wgdsr]

Giving a different perspective, is the ACC full of great teams or a group of good teams? If they are all able to beat each other on a given day, is any of them actually a GREAT team? I don't know but is it a possibility that we are over rating the ACC as a conference because everyone keeps saying there are multiple great teams. Is ACC getting extra credit based on historical context? Could it be that it is a group of above average teams capable of catching the other one on any given day?

Rutgers deserves credit for how well they played Maryland twice, which is the #1 team, putting Rutgers in my mind in the 4 to 6 range in the rankings.

put great in whatever context you'd like. what's different is the extra year, bringing in stars from other teams to several teams. that may make them a notch better in toto than other years, at least re: personnel. but there's only one ball and people need to be assimilated. and can be scouted to play off their best game.

every team has an achilles heel or 2, every year. what's key is running on all cylinders for the 4 games in may. luck helps. that team typically takes it, and becomes "great".