Polls on 3/10

[Clarensauce]

Disclaimer: This is my first time doing this. If anything is wrong or missing, feel free to correct.

USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll: #21
Collegiate Baseball: #27
Baseball America: #24


What are your thoughts about moving down after a 4-0 week?

[SpanglerFan316]

Who cares? It's too early to worry about this now. Win games and enjoy life.

[Clarensauce]

Who cares? It's too early to worry about this now. Win games and enjoy life.

I agree that it doesn't matter much right now. I was just wondering if anyone knew the reasoning. My best guess was just that the four victories were against LeMoyne and Harvard. Anyone?

[shockfan89]

Who cares? It's too early to worry about this now. Win games and enjoy life.

It matters if you want to host a Regional or Super Regional. I think we lost our chance at the Super already...

[SpanglerFan316]

Who cares? It's too early to worry about this now. Win games and enjoy life.

It matters if you want to host a Regional or Super Regional. I think we lost our chance at the Super already...

I disagree. It depends on how the season goes. If, for example, we win the rest of our games, we will host a super regional.

[goshox24]

We have definitely not lost a chance to host the super regional. We need to start piling up wins, but the opportunity is still there.

[ShockerFever]

If, for example, we win the rest of our games, we will host a super regional.

Gee.. all we hafta do is win the rest of our games? That's it? 45 in a row would be pretty good..


:roll:

[shockfan89]

We have definitely not lost a chance to host the super regional. We need to start piling up wins, but the opportunity is still there.

Let me explain a little better what I meant. Polls are important because you are not going to host a Super Regional if you are ranked lower than 20th. Realistically you have to be ranked in the top 15 to have a good chance. In baseball there is not a lot of poll movement after the first month because everyone loses. It is not like basketball or football where losing a game will drop you. Quality of opponents also is a big factor that will work against us in league play. An example of this is us going 4-0 and dropping in some polls. We lost a huge opportunity when we got swept by LBSU (who had the #1 RPI at the time we played them). It is still possible we could host a Super Regional but we would have to pretty much win 90% or more of our games from here on out.

[t7017s]

I think if you are patient you'll see that we will win most if not all of our conference games while the bcs schools will be knocking each other off every other day. this will allow us to move up the polls once the season is in full swing. Also taking it to TCU this weekend would be a good place to start. They gave ole miss all they could handle this weekend and will be a better evaluation of this team than the long beach series was. It's so early and I Fail to see the reason for all the concern thus far. Fact of the matter is its baseball and anyone can win any day. get to the tourny by winning the conference and who cares what your ranked or seeded. Sure I'd love another regional or super here but its not everything. I dont think we are gonna be banished from any decent ranking this year because we lost to a really really really good long beach state team. the more they win with that brutal schedule they have and the less those losses will hurt.

[SB Shock]

Who cares?

May I ask why your reading this thread and posting?

[SpanglerFan316]

Who cares?

May I ask why your reading this thread and posting?

Disclaimer: This is my first time doing this. If anything is wrong or missing, feel free to correct.

USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll: #21
Collegiate Baseball: #27
Baseball America: #24


What are your thoughts about moving down after a 4-0 week?

I am interested in the polls. My "who cares?" referenced the comment "What are your thoughts about moving down after a 4-0 week?" and the implication that we should feel slighted by a drop after a 4-0 week.

[SB Shock]

Re: Polls on 3/10

Disclaimer: This is my first time doing this. If anything is wrong or missing, feel free to correct.

USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll: #21
Collegiate Baseball: #27
Baseball America: #24


What are your thoughts about moving down after a 4-0 week?

You did fine. There are 3 important polls that mean anything and you listed them. My only suggestion is you might want to list where they moved relative to last week.

I believe the drop is based on several factors.

a. There are some teams that are off to a great start who weren't in the top 25 (Arkansas, Stanford - took 2 of 3 from Texas).

b. WSU didn't really play a quality opponent this week and almost lost a game

c. Maybe some delayed backlash from the LBS weekend.

Makes this week even more important to win (if it wasn't already obvious), if they don't win 3 or 4, they will risk being out of the Top 25.

FWIW, I believe being in the Top 25 is important. It generates perception about your team and people are going to notice you. If you drop out, it very hard to get back in and move up without a extended winning streak.

WSU RPI will never be good enough to deserve a Super Regional - when you play in the 18th ranked conference it just isn't going to happen. This doesn't mean it can't host a super, it just means the are going to have to do it based on other factors (like the perception generated by polls, getting some quality wins against good competition, and dominating the crappy teams in the MVC).

[Shocker85]

My annual diatribe on polls, rankings, etc.

The polls have no bearing on ANYTHING, much less hosting a Regional/Super Regional or not. RPI is a much better indicator and it is a flawed system, too, especially in baseball and to some extent the selection committee recognizes its flaws.

10 games into the season is far too early for RPI to be meaningful. Teams from cold-weather climates play most of their games on the road in the south, where the teams have been practicing outside and are developmentally much further along than teams who can't get outside early. This disparity actually penalizes the RPI of the traveling teams all season, but it is even worse early in the year.

The ONLY poll that is really a poll at all is USA Today/Coaches. The others are staff opinions and are biased toward teams with statistical carry-over strength. Teams have to prove a lot on the field to impress these so-called poll creators. There's probably 3 or 4 guys in an office in somewhere reading boxscores and surfing the internet gathering data to compile their polls. I can't put much stock in that.

Poll dynamics are hard to figure out. Traditional powers become entrenched high due to reputation. Upstart teams usually fall too far after a couple losses and have to have good streaks to push back up into the upper poll rankings. Some pollsters simply don't like certain teams. RPI is a better measure than polls because it is purely statistical.

Being ranked too high too early makes you a target for crappy teams. Better to lurk in the teens and then move up in May. Polls at the start of March just serve as fuel to inspire the Indiana States of the world.

NONE of this stuff is a factor until May. The NCAA doesn't pick the regional hosts after 10 games, rather after 56. Early losses in baseball are akin to an early loss if football - you can make-up ground by getting hot at the end of the season.

--'85.

[t7017s]

Lamoyne is a good team. A team thats been to regional several times in the last few years. Are they Arizona State... No. But they arent teh nobodies that most on here assume they are based on their name either. Harvard is better than what htey showed this last weekend. They are down this year and it was the first series for them of the year so take that for what its worth. We have plenty of good teams that we will face starting this weekend with TCU that took 2/3 from Ole Miss who happened to be #2 and 3 in many of the polls. We still have Arizona State, Oral Roberts, nebraska, KU, KSU, OU, and OSU. Thats not including Creighton and southern illinois... and both are better than most realize. Creighton lost a game to Rice this weekend 6-7. Rice had to rally 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th to win. I'm not worried and its very very early in the season still.

[CharlieHog]

Creighton lost a game to Rice this weekend 6-7. Rice had to rally 2 runs in the bottom of the 8th to win. I'm not worried and its very very early in the season still.

Rice has looked really mediocre lately.