NCBWA Pre-Season Power Rating (2011)

[SB Shock]

http://www.sportswriters.net/ncbwa/poll/

WSU ranked 33rd

MVC best team Illinois St - unranked

[shocker3]

Illinois St didn't even get any votes and 33 teams outside of the top 35 received votes. That would place them worse than #68.

[Shocker85]

Teams with no history won't get any respect in the national preseason polls. Does WSU deserve 33 based upon recent seasons' performance? Probably not. The Shox can still pitch, but the hitting has been woeful lately.

The thing the MVC coaches see is IllSt returning upperclassmen (esp. Tokarski, Maines, and Long), 7 returning starters, and the fact that IllSt tied with WSU for the regular season title and won the tournament. Conversely, WSU lost a lot of guys to graduation.

Besides, the preseason league poll was pretty much a split vote.

--'85.