I have often asked, “is this poll serious?”, and usually it has been in connection with my own work, and best guess at a solid Top 20 ranking. More often than not, my poll has not been all that serious, because polls are inherently meaningless, and simply make for awesome conversation fodder. I try, but perfection is never attainable.
Except for this poll.
THIS poll actually means something AND it’s accurate, because all the results are in, and we know exactly where everyone stands. So get ready for some CRAZY analysis and super poll production in 3, 2, 1…
End of Season NCAA D1 Poll
- – The University of North Carolina
- – The University of Maryland
- – Brown University
- – Loyola University
- through 20. – OTHER TEAMS, the order doesn’t really matter now.
Maryland got a runner’s up trophy, UNC got the real deal trophy, Brown and Loyola made the Final Four, and everyone else finished tied for last. That’s not truly accurate, but for the sake of this super serious poll, it serves.
This is NOT a knock on ANY other program. It simply says that the two best teams in 2016 were UNC and Maryland, BASED OFF OF FINISHING RESULTS, and nothing more. The next two best teams were the ones still playing on Saturday, when it still mattered most.
Do I think Yale was GREAT? Absolutely. Potential top 3 team in any reasonable Top 20 poll (mine is not reasonable, obviously), and if you look at their body of work over the whole season, they could even be higher for some people. Especially if you’re willing to view them with a healthy Quinn. And what about ND? They had a great year, and so did Denver, even with their early NCAA exit.
So all the props in the world go to Notre Dame, Denver, Marquette, Loyola, Brown, Yale, Navy, Hopkins, Bucknell, Army, Towson, Albany, Stony Brook, Vermont, Air Force, and about 20 other schools on AWESOME seasons. Teams played hard, and did some amazing things. But right now, all that matters is UNC beating Maryland in the finals, and the semifinal results.
#1 – #4 are set for me, and the rest all sort of washes away. That’s a harsh reality to swallow, but it’s also reality in many ways.
In the NCAA D1 finals page on Wikipedia, they will mention the finalists, and maybe Loyola and Brown as Final Four teams, but the rest of the teams are pushed to the 2016 sub-page. So this poll is really the exact same thing. Beyond the final four, none of it really matters anymore.
It’s kind of sad, but it’s also kind of beautiful.
