First week polls

Topdrawer still has us as #1 (did I tell you how astute he is?)

Of the others, Here's the first one out:

Soccer Times
1 North Carolina (16)1-0-0
2 Stanford 1-0-0
3 Portland 1-0-0
4 Notre Dame 1-0-0
5 Florida State1-0-0
6 Texas A&M 1-0-0
7 UCLA 0-1-0
8 Florida 1-0-0
9 Penn State 1-0-0
10 Duke 1-0-0
11 Boston College 0-0-0
12 Virginia 0-1-0
13 Missouri 1-0-0
14 Southern California 0-1-0
15 Colorado 1-0-0
16 California 1-0-0
17 West Virginia 0-0-1
18 Minnesota 1-0-0
19 Illinois 1-0-0
20 Santa Clara 1-0-0
21 Rutgers 0-0-0
22 (tie) Oklahoma State 0-1-0
22 (tie)Wake Forest 1-0-0
24 San Diego 1-1-0
25 Texas 0-1-0

San Diego is clinging to a ranking after their stumble yesterday, (actually, I'm not sure it's included in the votes)
and Santa Clara jumped into the ranks all the way to 20.

Did I mention SCU only allowed one SOG all weekend?

The NSCAA won't have a poll out until September 1.

Geezaldinho wrote:

Did I mention SCU only allowed one SOG all weekend?

Haha methinks if they had played at Pape Field that would have been a much different story...

I am still shell shocked by the UNC-UCLA result... who would have thought that would be so high scoring and lopsided. That A&M trip is looking like it is going to be EXTREMELY important when it rolls around.

aleppiek wrote:I am still shell shocked by the UNC-UCLA result... who would have thought that would be so high scoring and lopsided. That A&M trip is looking like it is going to be EXTREMELY important when it rolls around.

I'm not surprised they lost. They graduated diMartino so their offense will struggle a bit, and they lost 3 defenders, including Erin Hardy, who I think was one of the best.

They also started a freshman keeper, I have no idea what that was about.

Still, 7-2 is a beat-down.

I haven't found the Soccer America Poll yet, but I did find this snippett on the Penn State site.

UNC and Stanford hold the top two spots, followed by Portland, Notre Dame and Penn State.

Virginia fell from 11th to 14th, while this week's opponents West Virginia (17th) and Connecticut (21st) both moved down one spot, respectively.

Here's the SA rankings. I'm not sure why UCLA didn't drop below TAMU after they got shellacked and TAMU got a good win against USC, but that's their fight...


SOCCER AMERICA RANKINGS (Aug. 24)

RANK/TEAM (RECORD) LAST WEEK
1. North Carolina (1-0-0) 1
2. Stanford (1-0-0) 2
3. Portland (1-0-0) 4
4. Notre Dame (1-0-0) 5
5. Penn State (1-0-0) 6
6. Florida State (1-0-0) 7
7. UCLA (0-1-0) 3
8. Boston College (0-0-0) 8
9. Texas A&M (1-0-0) 9
10. Florida (1-0-0) 10
11. Missouri (1-0-0) 13
12. Duke (1-0-0) 14
13. Colorado (1-0-0) 17
14. Virginia (0-1-0) 11
15. USC (0-1-0) 12
16. California (1-0-0) 19
17. West Virginia (0-0-1) 16
18. Michigan State (0-0-0) 18
19. Washington State (1-0-0) 22
20. Illinois (1-0-0) 23
21. Connecticut (0-0-0) 20
22. Rutgers (0-0-0) 21
23. Santa Clara (2-0-0) NR
24. Minnesota (1-0-0) NR
25. Richmond (1-0-0) NR
25. Memphis (1-0-0) NR

Santa Clara just went into that ranking, and San Diego waved buh-bye.

USD plays UCLA next, so that may change.

Boy it could be really good for our RPI if USD and Santa Clara can get some quality wins, and we don't stumble... I'm anxious to get through next weekend so we can start to see the RPI landscape from UPSF.

Yeah, the best part of last weekend is that the WCC only suffered one loss.

(and only three goals)

Element ll (opponent's wins) starts looking pretty good..

Does UPSF consider the "Pokie Factor"?

When it comes to late-season home games... watch out!

UP moves up to #3 in the coaches poll:

NSCAA National Rankings
NCAA Rankings National Women
Division I National Poll - August 25, 2009

Rank School Prev. W-L-T
1 North Carolina (32) 824 1 1 - 0 - 0
2 Notre Dame 761 3 1 - 0 - 0
3 Portland 740 4 1 - 0 - 0
4 Stanford 736 2 1 - 0 - 0
5 Florida State 682 6 1 - 0 - 0
6 Texas A&M 668 7 1 - 0 - 0
7 Florida 594 10 1 - 0 - 0
8 Penn State 567 12 1 - 0 - 0
9 UCLA 543 5 0 - 1 - 0
10 Virginia 436 9 0 - 1 - 0
11 Duke 426 16 1 - 0 - 0
12 USC 412 8 0 - 1 - 0
13 Illinois 314 17 1 - 0 - 0
14 West Virginia 296 14 0 - 0 - 1
15 San Diego 292 13 1 - 1 - 0
16 Georgia 257 18 1 - 0 - 0
17 Minnesota 235 19 1 - 0 - 0
18 Colorado 229 RV 1 - 0 - 0
19 Santa Clara 226 22 2 - 0 - 0
20 Boston College 203 23 0 - 0 - 0
21 Oklahoma State 195 11 0 - 1 - 0
22 Missouri 186 24 1 - 0 - 0
23 Rutgers 157 20 0 - 0 - 0
24 Washington State 150 21 1 - 0 - 0
25 Texas 132 15 0 - 1 - 0

You have to wonder what the coaches are thinking.

WSU wins (OK, it was Idaho) but drops 3 places.

Meanwhile, BC plays no one and RISES 3 spots?

While Rutgers plays no one and FALLS three spots?

That Rutgers-BC non-contest must have been a doozy.

aleppiek wrote:Boy it could be really good for our RPI if USD and Santa Clara can get some quality wins, and we don't stumble... I'm anxious to get through next weekend so we can start to see the RPI landscape from UPSF.

The best thing I saw related to this over the weekend was Pepperdine's Sunday win over Marquette. Marquette finished the season last year at #41 in the RPI ranks. If Pepperdine is back up there this year, it would be great,as we could end up with five top 50 teams: Pilots, Santa Clara, San Diego, Loyola Marymount, Pepperdine.

I've been wondering why Washington has gotten so dissed in the polls. On checking, they lost the equivalent of about four starters, including just under half of their goal production.

If I remember correctly last year it seemed that WSU was ranked higher than Wash most of the season despite a relatively weak schedule... not sure why Washington is not in the top 25 either. UPSF, the win bonus is in the top 50 RPI correct?

It looks like the SIS, thus far the best reporting system, is doing their own rankings that diverge from the coaches poll they used to report. While I don't agree with their results so far, it's their first independent effort, so we have to give them credit for trying.

It looks like they will replace the now-defunct Buzz poll.

SIS Ranked Teams
Tue Aug 25, 09 (20:46)

Note: * Reflects Games Reported To SIS - (nn) Current Rank

1 North Carolina 1-0-0 4 08/22 W 7-2 Home UCLA(03)
2 Notre Dame 1-0-0 1 08/21 W 3-0 Home Wisconsin
3 UCLA 0-1-0 2 08/22 L 2-7 Away North Carolina(01)
4 Stanford 1-0-0 5 08/23 W 6-2 Away Hawaii
5 Portland 1-0-0 3 08/22 W 3-0 Away Oregon
6 Florida State 1-0-0 6 08/21 W 7-0 Home Jacksonville U
7 Texas A&M 1-0-0 14 08/22 W 3-0 Home USC(08)
8 USC 0-1-0 8 08/22 L 0-3 Away Texas A&M(07)
9 Duke 1-0-0 18 08/23 W 3-0 Home Gardner Webb
10 Florida 1-0-0 9 08/21 W 1-0 Away Miami(FL)
11 Boston College 0-0-0 10
12 Virginia 0-1-0 11 08/21 L 0-1 Away Penn State
13 Oklahoma State 0-1-0 7 08/22 L 0-1 Away Colorado(22)
14 West Virginia 0-0-1 12 08/23 T 0-0 Home Ohio State
15 Minnesota 1-0-0 22 08/21 W 4-0 Home South Dakota State
16 San Diego 1-1-0 17 08/21 W 3-0 Home CS Northridge & 08/23 L 1-2 Away CSU Bakersfield
17 Missouri 1-0-0 13 08/21 W 3-2 Away Iowa
18 Texas 0-1-0 19 08/21 L 1-2 Home TCU
19 James Madison 0-1-0 NR 08/22 L 0-3 Home Richmond
20 BYU 0-0-1 21 08/21 T 0-0 Away Hawaii
21 Rutgers 0-0-0 NR
22 Colorado 1-0-0 15 08/22 W 1-0 Home Oklahoma State(13)
23 Illinois 1-0-0 NR 08/21 W 4-0 Home Illinois State
24 Wisconsin-Milwaukee 0-0-2 16 08/21 T 0-0 Away Northwestern & 08/24 T 0-0 Away Wisconsin
25 Wake Forest 2-0-0 23 08/21 W 5-0 Home High Point & 08/23 W 2-1 Away UNC Greensboro

aleppiek wrote:I am still shell shocked by the UNC-UCLA result... who would have thought that would be so high scoring and lopsided. That A&M trip is looking like it is going to be EXTREMELY important when it rolls around.

So are we looking at a bus for the A&M trip? That could be fun.

It was tempting in 05'

Penn State/UP Fan wrote:
So are we looking at a bus for the A&M trip? That could be fun.

Absolutely - in December.

A couple of things:

1. I think the SIS rankings are done via vote of the volunteers who enter data into its system. I wouldn't take them very seriously, notwithstanding that our most stalwart poster is one of the volunteers.

2. There are two levels of bonuses within the RPI. The top level is for wins and ties against teams ranked 1-40; and the lower level is for wins and ties against teams ranked 41-80. The bonuses have minimal effect on teams' RPI rankings, but according to an NCAA explanation of the rationale for the bonuses makes the work of the Women's Soccer Committee easier because the bonuses spread out the teams' ratings more. In fact, the bonuses do spread out the ratings more. However, the bonuses also make the ratings less accurate as reflections of teams' actual records during the regular season. I know this via studies I've done of how well the different RPI variants correlate with actual game results during the regular season. Thus the bonuses make it easier for the Committee to make wrong decisions. For this and other reasons, the Committee ought to get rid of the bonuses (and penalties for bad ties and losses), just as men's ice hockey did before the beginning of the 2008 season.

UPSoccerFanatic wrote:A couple of things:

1. I think the SIS rankings are done via vote of the volunteers who enter data into its system. I wouldn't take them very seriously, notwithstanding that our most stalwart poster is one of the volunteers.

2. There are two levels of bonuses within the RPI. The top level is for wins and ties against teams ranked 1-40; and the lower level is for wins and ties against teams ranked 41-80. The bonuses have minimal effect on teams' RPI rankings, but according to an NCAA explanation of the rationale for the bonuses makes the work of the Women's Soccer Committee easier because the bonuses spread out the teams' ratings more. In fact, the bonuses do spread out the ratings more. However, the bonuses also make the ratings less accurate as reflections of teams' actual records during the regular season. I know this via studies I've done of how well the different RPI variants correlate with actual game results during the regular season. Thus the bonuses make it easier for the Committee to make wrong decisions. For this and other reasons, the Committee ought to get rid of the bonuses (and penalties for bad ties and losses), just as men's ice hockey did before the beginning of the 2008 season.

well, I'm an SIS volunteer, and I wasn't asked to vote, so I don't think that's right. It could be the school SID's that vote, though.

Actually, other than Soccer Times and the coaches polls , it's pretty hard to say who makes up any of the polls.

Soccer America has never revealed how they do theirs. Maybe a phone call to Anson....


I'm with you on the Bonus system. If it's less accurate, dump it.

Any of you know if we will be seeing a re-emergence of Albyn Jones' Ratings this season?

aleppiek wrote:Any of you know if we will be seeing a re-emergence of Albyn Jones' Ratings this season?

It appears the change in the recording system has affected him, too. It looks like the NSCAA system isn't ready for Prime Time and links are broken.

From his site:

Due to changes at the NSCAA we may need to begin publishing the 2009 college ratings later in the year than usual. We are also experiencing failures on all of our outbound links directed at the former NSCAA College Scoreboard.

Maybe the NSCAA should have consulted us before making such drastic changes.

Regarding score reporting systems, there is a brand new system up and running now that is the most complete and accurate system out there. A complete set of game scores gets entered into the system very soon after games are played.

I've used SIS for the last three years, and they did an excellent job, but in my opinion the new system is the place to go for those who want completeness and accuracy. The guy who has set this up, as a volunteer project, is a UNC fan, but don't let that deter you. He has done a fantastic job.

Here's a link to the master schedule for the entire season, with the results of all games played through yesterday: http://www.nc-soccer.com/wsoccer/2009/composite

If any of you are interested, I also can provide a team listing that will link you to each school's schedule page and, through the schedule page, to the school's own website schedule page (and through it, to the school's women's soccer "home" page). In addition, I can provide a link to the teams organized by conference with the teams' cumulative records to date.

Regarding Albyn Jones' system, he has told me that he intends to continue with his system this year. He was, however, having a technical problem he was working on. Also, with GoCollegeSoccer having gotten the NSCAA contract away from SIS, he has been concerned about how to get complete and accurate data. I'm just about to let him know about the new system.

Well I am certainly glad that there are smarter and better equipped people out there to consume the raw data and get it in a form that my small brain can interpret it. Thanks again UPSF for all the info.

Does anyone else feel like we're going to be this years' Notre Dame? A team that almost goes undefeated and doesn't really know how good it is until tourney time? Other than Texas A&M, where are we going to be tested? I'm still hoping that SCU enters the rankings again. It's good for the WCC...