The Bobcat Nation

AGS Poll 10/16/2006
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Any Given Saturday Poll Top 25
10/16/2006

(First place votes in parenthesis)
1. Appalachian St (40)
2. Montana (6)
3. Illinois St (10)
4. Youngstown St (1)
5. Cal Poly
6. North Dakota St (3)
7. Massachusetts (3)
8. New Hampshire (1)
9. James Madison (1)
10. Richmond
11. Furman
12. Hampton
13. Northern Iowa
14. Southern Illinois
15. Harvard
16. Eastern Illinois
17. Tenn Martin
18. UC Davis
19. Princeton
20. Maine
21. Portland St
22. San Diego
23. Sam Houston St
24. Alabama A&M
25. Coastal Carolina
Others receiving votes (minimum of 5 votes): Jackson St (21), Montana St (13), Towson (13), Charleston Southern (12), Penn (11), Jacksonville St (7), Central Conn (5), Holy Cross (5)

MOST SIGNIFICANT WIN OF THE WEEK: James Madison
MOST SIGNIFICANT LOSS OF THE WEEK: New Hampshire

Just keep us out of the top 25 for another week or so.

How is it that James Madison is still ranked behind New Hampshire after that dismantling last weekend?

barechestcat wrote:How is it that James Madison is still ranked behind New Hampshire after that dismantling last weekend?

Because, unlike Cat fans, most people understand that winning one game against a conference foe does not a season make, nor does it mean they are the better team.

Here's the Sportsnetwork poll for this week:

Appalachian State earns No. 1 ranking
Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - After a 14-7 victory against Wofford and New Hampshire’s 42-23 loss to James Madison, the Appalachian State Mountaineers are back at the No. 1 position in The Sports Network I-AA top 25. Winners of six in a row, the Mountaineers spent the last five weeks at the No. 2 spot after starting the season at No. 1 on the heels of last year’s national championship. The Mountaineers picked up 88 of a possible 109 first-place votes and 2,693 points to earn the No. 1 ranking. They will put the ranking and their 6-1 record on the line Saturday in a Southern Conference matchup at Georgia Southern.

Montana bumps up one spot to No. 2, as the Grizzlies receive a pair of first- place votes and 2,498 total points. The Grizzlies knocked off Northern Arizona, 24-21, to notch their fifth consecutive win and move to 5-1 to overall. Illinois State dominated a battle of top ten teams with a 37-10 victory against Southern Illinois and jumped up two spots in the rankings to No. 3. The Redbirds garnered 11 first-place votes and 2,401 total points to claim the No. 3 position. Cal Poly remained at No. 4 after an off week, while Youngstown State is into the top five after a win at Western Illinois.

Three Atlantic 10 teams lead off the bottom half of the top ten. Massachusetts won at Towson, 35-0, in a battle of ranked opponents and earned a two-spot boost to No. 6. New Hampshire is down six spots to No. 7 after the home loss to James Madison, while the Dukes move five positions to No. 8 after the victory. North Dakota State and Richmond stay put at No. 9 and No. 10, respectively.

The next two teams flipped positions in the poll, with Hampton taking the No. 11 spot and Furman dropping to No. 12. Southern Illinois fell six places to No. 13 with the loss at Illinois State, while Northern Iowa maintained its position at No. 14 and Harvard stayed at No. 15.

Tennessee-Martin and Eastern Illinois switched positions, with the Skyhawks getting a boost to No. 16 and the Panthers sliding one rung to No. 17. UC Davis stays at No. 18, Maine is up four places to No. 19, and Alabama A & M remains at No. 20.

San Diego is at No. 21, with Princeton at No. 22, Portland State at No. 23, Coastal Carolina at No. 24 and Sam Houston State at No. 25. The Chanticleers and Bearkats enter the rankings this week, and Sam Houston State is in the top 25 for the first time this season.

24 of the 25 teams will be in action this weekend, with two games pitting ranked teams. No. 5 Youngstown State hosts No. 14 Northern Iowa in a key Gateway Conference game, while No. 15 Harvard is at No. 22 Princeton in a matchup of undefeated teams in the Ivy League.


10/16 13:38:05 ET

Born2BaGriz wrote:

barechestcat wrote:How is it that James Madison is still ranked behind New Hampshire after that dismantling last weekend?

Because, unlike Cat fans, most people understand that winning one game against a conference foe does not a season make, nor does it mean they are the better team.

Ummm ... so you are arguing that head to head results are NOT a good indicator of who is the better team?

I guess that means that the BCS (and better yet, the old AP and UPI polls annointing a national champion) is the best system and all of this playoff crap in every other sport is bogus, huh?

It's amazing the bizarre arguments that people will throw together when their team can't beat their rival consistently anymore.

Born2BaGriz wrote:

barechestcat wrote:How is it that James Madison is still ranked behind New Hampshire after that dismantling last weekend?

Because, unlike Cat fans, most people understand that winning one game against a conference foe does not a season make, nor does it mean they are the better team.

Go read Dougherty's article. James Madison kicked the crap out of them. It wasn't a fluke. You beat up on the #1 team in the nation and you only move up 4 spots?

barechestcat wrote:How is it that James Madison is still ranked behind New Hampshire after that dismantling last weekend?

I bumped JMU to #5 this week & dropped UNH to #7.

To each his own I guess.

barechestcat wrote:How is it that James Madison is still ranked behind New Hampshire after that dismantling last weekend?

For the same reason PSU is still ahead of us.

longhorn_22 wrote:

barechestcat wrote:How is it that James Madison is still ranked behind New Hampshire after that dismantling last weekend?

For the same reason PSU is still ahead of us.

I can handle PSU being ahead of us due to the three game skid. But, two ranked teams with one exhibiting dominance? Just seems odd.

Is it true that IVY league teams can't play in the postseason? If this is true and both teams remain ranked, will there be two teams not making the top 25 that will get an at large bid?

Rankings mean nothing really to MSU though. We lose we are out of the playoffs. One game at a time. If we take care of business each week on out not only will we be in the playoffs, but we should be ranked pretty darn high too.

KillintheGriz wrote:Is it true that IVY league teams can't play in the postseason? If this is true and both teams remain ranked, will there be two teams not making the top 25 that will get an at large bid?

True, the Ivy League does not allow it's members to compete in the I-AA playoffs.

I would probably rank JMU ahead of UNH, but let me try to make the argument to the contrary:

1. The ranking is, as others have noted, based on the entire season, not solely on the head-to-head game. Thus, the head-to-head result, while meaningful, does not end the conversation.

2. Prior to this game, JMU's season has gone as follows: an unimpressive 14-3 win over (Div. II, I believe) Bloomsburg; two blowout wins over teams that aren't that great (VMI and Northeastern), a loss to App. State, and a "closer than it probably should've been" win over Rhode Island (35-23).

3. On the other hand, prior to its loss to JMU, UNH's schedule included a convincing road win over Big-10 Northwestern, two blowouts over teams they should have blown out (Dartmouth and Stony Brook), and road wins over two tough A-10 teams (51-49 over Delaware, and 27-17 over top-10 Richmond).

Having said that -- the head-to-head win should count for a lot, and I personally would probably agree that JMU should be ahead of UNH. However, I don't think it's that patently ridiculous to argue that UNH's season, on the whole, has been more impressive thus far, and on that basis, I can see the argument for ranking UNH higher.

Just my .02...

Why is everyone overlooking NDSU? I understand why the east coast sports writers blow them off but we should know better. I think they actually have half a chance this weekend in Minnesota.

Weltercat wrote:Why is everyone overlooking NDSU? I understand why the east coast sports writers blow them off but we should know better. I think they actually have half a chance this weekend in Minnesota.

I'm not sure anyone is overlooking them... after all, they are ranked 6th in the nation? They are not playoff-eligible if that's what you mean...

I am just wondering why they are sixth? Maybe it is because they are not playoff eligible, but they are undefeated with a Div 1A win in arguably the best Div 1AA conference in the country. How come anyone is ranked ahead of them?

Weltercat wrote:I am just wondering why they are sixth? Maybe it is because they are not playoff eligible, but they are undefeated with a Div 1A win in arguably the best Div 1AA conference in the country. How come anyone is ranked ahead of them?

It pretty much depends on where they started. When teams that were ranked higher than you to begin the season keep winning, you can'te really leap-frog them too far. Had NDSU been in the top 3 to start the season, they'd probably still be there...

I will buy that arguement but not all those teams are undefeated. It seems to me that NDSU should at least leap frog the teams with Div 1A losses since they have a 1A win and are also undefeated.

Also the computer rankings show the Great West being the best conference.

kmax wrote:

KillintheGriz wrote:Is it true that IVY league teams can't play in the postseason? If this is true and both teams remain ranked, will there be two teams not making the top 25 that will get an at large bid?

True, the Ivy League does not allow it's members to compete in the I-AA playoffs.

Additionally, the University of San Diego (regardless of where they end up in the rankings and no matter how loud coach Harbaugh complains) will not end up in the playoffs. Ditto for Cal-Davis, who isn't playoff eligible until next year. Heck, don't the two of them have a regular season game scheduled on the first weekend of the playoffs?

Not that we can afford to lose a game, it's still lose and you're not in the playoffs for the Cats. However, quite a few teams that could end up ahead of us in the rankings aren't going to be in the playoffs, so it should be an interesting November.