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Hot Pot Of Lax: Post Weekend Lacrosse Old Man Soreness

Mad Hatter tea pot 3 spout pour
Stick to Tea, hatter.

Jeff got the day off today, which is fair, since he’s been working for the past 127 days straight.  Even Cal Ripken misses a game once in a while, Jeff.  Don’t feel too bad.  I, on other hand, can barely walk after playing 2 games of box lacrosse on Saturday and then a game of field lacrosse on Sunday, yet I’m still hobbling around on the field a la poor Bill Buckner.  Ice and Ibuprofen are my only friends right now.  So, I’m going to use this opportunity to either introduce you to, or rekindle your love with, the laxpower computer rankings.  Hopefully a relationship will develop.

You know how the BCS is made up of a little bit of math, a lot of opinion and some questionable decisions, right?  Well, Laxpower is better than that even though they basically do very similar things.  Both use numbers, scores, polls and other metrics to decipher the truest Rankings.  In my opinion, only one of them is very accurate, and it’s the lacrosse guys who got it right.

The BCS is used as an almost infallible system and it is viewed as the Golden Measuring Stick in determining a team’s worth for post-season play even though past innaccuracies in the BCS standings can be pointed to with ease.  The Laxpower Power Rankings are, of course, also flawed and the LaxPower guys actually admit this and continue to work on the algorithm.  To me, that’s a huge improvement right off the bat!

The other major problem with the BCS is that companies that stand to make a LOT of money are heavily involved in everything.  Since money is the ultimate corrupter of sports and athletes, the BCS is probably going to be flawed no matter what.  Special interests will only let something play out if they approve of it, and whether or not that is keeping Boise State out of the NC game or something much smaller, the point stands that the BCS simply can not be trusted.

However, when most of the teams in your division have played 5-7 games and you check out Laxpower, I think you’ll be really impressed with their Power Rankings.  I remember finding them online about 10 years ago and thinking that I had found the greatest invention ever.  I’m a lax rat, so I’m biased, but the quality was there and that’s why I keep going back.  It’s unbiased, mathematical and a constant work in progress, and I can go to bat for that.  Now if I could only figure out why I’m making all the baseball references…

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

– You want scores from the weekend?  D1-D3, MCLA, high school and more! Laxpower’s got ’em. | Laxpower

– Sunshine Classic Featuring Duke & ND | Inside Lacrosse

– OSU beats UNC and OSU isn’t even that good | Inside Lacrosse

– Navy vs. Loyola Recap and Pictures | Lax.com

– Hopkins wins season opener over Towson | Lax.com

– DIII Schools with Lacrosse in the Director’s Cup Rankings | Empower The Athlete

– Denver lost to Cuse 13-7.  Could this become a HUGE rivalry in years to come? | Denver Post

– A touching sidebar to Penn State’s season opening win over Binghamton | Daily Collegian

– NLL: Colorado still struggling | Denver Post