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Is This D1 Lacrosse Poll Serious?

The USILA and Nike/IL Polls for NCAA D1 Men’s Lacrosse have been released. Quint Kessenich has dropped his Top 20. Let’s break down the Polls and rankings, and see if they are serious! This week I will also add in my ranking of the Top 20 at the end of my breakdown.

Rank | USILA Poll | Nike/IL Poll | Quint’s Top 20 | My Ranking

1) Maryland – Maryland – Maryland – Sure. I’ll go with Cornell as #1 though.

2) Cornell – Cornell – Cornell – I can get with this. It’s fair. Maryland is #2 for me.

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Photo Credit: Greg Vasil

3) Notre Dame – Notre Dame – Notre Dame – How is OSU not ranked third right now? Seriously… Notre Dame has a loss to #10 Hofstra, and OSU has a loss to #5 Denver. Maybe it’s all those Top 20 wins ND has (four of them)? Even Hofstra, who beat ND on the road, could be ranked higher than Notre Dame right now seeing as they beat them, and only have a loss to #7 Princeton. For #3, I’m going with Loyola. Crazy? Perhaps. But I like a 3 pick from left field.

4) Syracuse – Syracuse – Syracuse – Hop drops precipitously after losing to the Orange in all three Top 20 looks, and Cuse rises to the Top 5, all while Albany stays locked in concrete at #20? Seems very inconsistent, and like the UAlbany win is being disregarded. SU does not have the SOS to be 4th right now, and yet the three polls all agree. I’ll take Hofstra at #4.

5) Loyola – Denver – Denver – Denver looks tough and has played an impressive schedule so far. I can see them this high in the poll still. I’d still put Ohio State at #5. Now that is a crazy pick and I am prepared to be lambasted for it! Orignally, I had OSU below ND, and Brian Silcott called me out on it. If anything, this shows how hard it is to overcome bias. I couldn’t even get my own ranking in line with my reasoning. I do like Notre Dame however. Thanks for setting me straight, Brian!

6) Denver – Hofstra – Penn – Finally someone rewards Hofstra for the play so far. Quint rewards Penn. These are out on a limb rankings, and I like them. All of this agreeing on the big 4 was getting boring… can’t someone at least put Cornell at #1? Other than me, I mean. For #6, I’m going with Notre Dame. David Cooney will hate that, I’m sure.

7) Hofstra – Penn – Princeton – This is Quint’s third Ivy team in the Top 10. Hofstra gets some love from the Coaches. IL/Nike jumps on Quint’s Penn bandwagon. I’ll throw Denver in there at #7.

8) Ohio State – Ohio State – Hofstra – Finally, OSU gets some love. Quint ranks Hofstra. I would have saved the #8 slot for Penn.

9) Penn – Loyola – Duke – Nothing too shocking here, except for Quint giving Duke a Top 10 look. I’d blast this pick if I didn’t agree with it so much. Duke is improving quickly and is super dangerous, regardless of their record. I’ll take the bait, Q-man… Duke at #9.

10) Hopkins – Princeton – Loyola – This is where things start to get dicey… well if you overrated Cuse, they get dicey. I’m putting Princeton here, at #10. That seems a bit more fair.

11) Princeton – Hopkins – Ohio State – It’s like Goldilocks here. One is too high, one is too low, and one is just right. Can you figure out which is which? I would slot Syracuse here.

12) UNC – Duke  – UNC – It looks like another year of Classic UNC. That is where they have talent, tons of offense, but can’t string together consistent wins when it counts. Looks like the pollsters agree, at least for the most part. I’ll give the edge to Hopkins here.

13) Duke – Virginia – Virginia – Let’s give Virginia some love at #13! Duke could be higher, Virginia picks are good.

14) Virginia – UNC – Lehigh – Ok, now I feel comfortable ranking Lehigh.

15) Bucknell – Lehigh – Johns Hopkins –  I’ll go with that relatively unproved UNC team here.

16) Lehigh – Bucknell – Bucknell – Nope. Penn State is my choice. I still like this team a lot.

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17) Penn State – Drexel – Penn State – I don’t know about the bottom as much as the top of the best 20, as it’s much more fluid. I like Yale at #17.

18) Yale – Yale – Drexel – I still don’t have that much faith in Drexel. I’ll take Albany here. Wins are wins, and the Danes are still racking some up.

19) Drexel – Penn State – Yale – More boring picks. Maybe try to reward a new team this week? Let’s get crazy! 6-1 Bellarmine sneaks in at #19 for me. Their only loss is to Loyola, 8-6. I like this team’s chances!

20) Albany – Albany – Albany – Seriously? Albany at #20? ACROSS THE BOARD? Same thing as last week. That loss to Yale is killing them! Must be a conspiracy. I’ll go with Brown and Marist to be my #20 teams. Since I think outside the box, I give myself two #20s. Totally biased and unfair, I know.

These teams also got votes in the USILA Poll: Colgate, Bellarmine, Providence, Brown, UMass

These teams also got votes in the Nike/IL Poll: Brown, Colgate, Marist, Bellarmine, St. John’s

For more NCAA D1 lacrosse coverage, check out Video: Albany Wins; Thompson Trio Posts 22 PointsNCAA D1 Round Up: Scores And RecapsQuint Still Doesn’t Understand Zone Defense, Game Photos: Metropolitan Classic, and Game Photos: Georgetown Doubles Up Providence.