Polling

One has to wonder what people are thinking when they vote in polls. This week Boston University is #17 in the country in the USCHO college hockey poll. Now those who have not followed this season might think, "Oh, BU must be having a bit of a rough start as they are defending national champions". That sentiment is right but the ranking is not.

BU is 2-5-0. You read that correctly. They have 5 losses, are three games under .500, and on top of that are in last place in Hockey East. This team is also #17 in the nation. How? Name recognition. People are voting on what they think BU will do later and not what they are doing now. This is the classic problem with early season polls. Because BU started the year so high voters think they can't possible be as bad as their record so they still give them votes and get them in the poll.

I know this might sound like sour grapes from a die-hard BC hockey fan but I would like to think I would be just as outraged if Wisconsin were 2-5 and still ranked. No other team in the top 20 has more than 4 losses (that team is Michigan and is getting excused for two of those losses since they came to early season juggernaught Miami). No other team in the top 20 has a losing record never mind 3 games under. BU's two victories are an overtime squeaker against Lowell and a close 3-2 decision over Michigan. This past weekend BU was shut out by "Others receiving votes" team Northeastern who was waxed by BC the next night and lost to a Maine team nowhere to be found in the rankings.

This post is not designed to bash BU (I'll save that for when we get closer to the Fenway game and the Beanpot). They are a very good team that lost a lot last year in Colin Wilson, Matt Gilroy, Jason Lawrence, and Brandon Yip. I think, like BC in 2008-09, BU underestimated how difficult it would be replace those departing players and the production and leadership. They are still an immensely talented roster that is just trying to find the winning combination right now. When Nick Bonino returns from injury it will provide a boost that will more than likely get them back to winning games. But right now, at this moment, this team is struggling to score and to win games. They are not currently one of the top 20 teams in the nation. We've seen it all season in college football and not it has moved to the ice that name recognition is getting votes instead of in-game production. I do have to give Insidecollegehockey.com credit not only for dropping BU from their Power Rankings this week but calling out USCHO.com for having the Terriers ranked 17th.

Back to the Gridiron

This weekend I will be attending my first BC football game in about 10 years. I can't recall the exact last game that I went to but I believe it was at the end of the 1998 season though I won't swear I didn't catch a game in 1999. I am dutifully excited about it but at the same time I will miss my weekly ritual of sitting on the couch watching several different games from noon through bedtime. It will be interesting to see how the team handles the news this week of the departure of Justin Tuggle and Josh Haden.

On that note, I think more is being made of this departure than it actually is. Some people are attributing it to added turmoil in a program that had faced its share of obstacles this year. But I don't see it that way. Quite frankly I'm surprised that there haven't been more kids transferring with all the head coaching issues the program has had these past few seasons. Even top schools lose important players when the coaching staff changes. A good example would be Ryan Mallett who left Michigan for Arkansas because he knew that Bobby Petrino would offer an offense geared more towards his skills than Rich Rodriquez.

Now I am not putting Tuggle and Haden in that same echelon of player as Mallett and Frank Spaziani is certainly not as drastic a change in coaching style as going from Llyod Carr to Rich Rod. But the fact remains that both players were recruited by someone else and neither was looking at having much hope of serious playing time or of being the star at the Heights. I don't blame them for wanting to go somewhere else and play every down instead of riding the bench (Tuggle) or platooning and being on the short end of that platoon (Haden). Both players were passed by other players who have simply shown themselves to be the better fit for the system. One might even argue that Tuggle had even moved to third in the depth chart behind true freshman Mascovetra. Plus, from what Montel Harris has said, it sounds as though Haden has never been happy at BC and if that is the case then it is better for both sides that he leaves and opens a spot for someone who actually wants to be at the Heights.

College football is about a lot of things but one of the most important elements is passion. If you are unhappy with your situation you will lose some of that passion and not perform to the best of your ability. I wish both Haden and Tuggle the best and hope they find a home that wants them as much as they want to be there. Undoubtedly, they will be missed by the Eagles but as this team has done all year I expect them to rise about the distraction and continue to play hard. They will certainly need it this weekend against a very good Central Michigan squad who in beating us could be on their way to a very special season.

The antithesis

2008 was all about good things for Boston sports. The Red Sox were the reigning World Series champs until October. The Celtics won the NBA title. BC won its third national title in hockey. The Bruins were following up a surprising 2007-08 campaign with a fantastic start to the 2008-09 season which would get them the best record in the conference.

2009 has been the antithesis of last year. The Lakers won the NBA title. Boston University is the reigning NCAA hockey national champion. The Yankees look more and more like the team to win the World Series this year. The Bruins are struggling and have lost two of their most important players (Milan Lucic & Marc Savard) for at least the next month. And this past weekend BC football ended its 6 game win streak against Notre Dame with a turnover plagued performance in South Bend. O "City of Champions" where have you gone??

I know - I sound like one of the doom and gloom writers I always rail against. Things are not as bleak as my previous paragraph may lead you to believe. To those who aren't BC fans, a BU victory is just as much of a Boston championship as a BC victory. With a healthy KG, the Celtics are once again a viable title contender this year. After some ups and downs early in the season the Patriots look like they are righting the ship and if they stay healthy should be considered among the NFL title contenders. The jury is out on the Bruins until we can see where they stand once Lucic and Savard come back. But there are positive signs over the past three games that this team may be regaining their competitive fire with a couple of come-from-behind performances. The BC football team, while not great, has performed much better than anyone thought they would and should make a bowl game this year when many people thought they would be lucky to win 3 games.

So I guess I need to be happy for what we have. Even though we don't have the dominant beat everybody teams from 2008, Boston still has title contenders in almost every sport. Not many cities can boast that. I guess I will suffer through 2009 - the year when all my most hated rivals won the prize.

Good luck

I'm not a gambling man. I don't play football cards or bet when I go to Vegas or play the lottery or enter into those on-line contests to win a new car or $1 million. However, what I have done the past couple years is enter into the Red Sox random ticket drawings.

Those who are unfamiliar with this system allow me to explain. Basically, because certain seats have a higher demand than others (Yankee games, Monster seats, postseason tickets), the Sox seek to limit the traffic on their server and allow people a real chance to get tickets. So, to attain this goal the Sox hold a drawing. You enter you name and email address and then if you win that lottery you have the right to try an log in and get tickets to the game.

I have never won a lottery of any kind that I remember (beyond maybe $5 off a scratch ticket I got for Christmas) so imagine my shock and surprise to win three times this year. I won the lottery to buy the Yankees playoff ticket early in the season, I won the lottery to buy ALDS tickets, and today I bought ALCS tickets (should the Sox make it past the Angels). Not too shabby. Now if I can just win the lottery to attend the Winter Classic between the Bruins and Flyers - I might actually start playing the numbers!

Let chaos reign

Week 4 of the college football season is in the books and it looks more and more like this will be another season of upheaval. This is great for college football and great for us fans that every week there seems to be some great game worth watching because you never know when the upsets will happen and this weekend was certainly filled with plenty of them.

To some degree this "chaos" is caused by too much credit being given where it isn't deserved. Let's take two cases in point -

One - Ole Miss - preseason ranked #8 in the AP and made it up to #4 before coming crashing down this week by losing to South Carolina. Now I'm not going to say that Ole Miss is a bad team but they never deserved this #8 ranking. They finished last season ranked #14 with a 9-4 record. They got their preseason ranking based on their win over Florida last year and the hype of Jevan Snead. In other words, their ranking was based on smoke and mirrors and no true results. They had trounced 1-AA Southeastern Louisiana (is the Waterboy on that team?) and Memphis (who might as well by 1-AA). Which means nothing. I'm not sure who was surprised by their loss but anyone who saw SC play against Georgia knew what the Gamecocks were capable of and had to know that Ole Miss was in trouble coming into this one. A ridiculous preseason ranking allowed this game to be considered an upset of a Top Five Team instead just a good game between two fairly even opponents.

Two - Miami (FL) - unranked in the preseason and made it up to #9 based on victories against Florida State and Georgia Tech before being physically dominated by Virginia Tech's defense this week and losing in Blacksburg. True, Miami had looked good for two weeks with good victories over FSU & GTech and despite the hype over Jacory Harris I wasn't ready to nominate him for the Heisman. These victories were given so much credit due to high expectations for their opponents (FSU was #18 when they played and GTech was #14), but in retrospect those opponents don't look quite so mighty. FSU has fallen out of the AP poll after a loss to South Florida and looked bad in beating 1-AA Jacksonville State two weeks prior and GTech just reentered the poll this week (at #25 mind you) by beating a suspect North Carolina team. Hardly the murderers row of opponents that people were making it out to be at the beginning of the year and certainly not the quality of opposition that deserves to bring a team from unranked to #9 in the nation. How did those wins vault them past Virginia Tech who had a tough first week loss to Alabama followed up by a destruction of Marshall and a good victory against a tough Nebraska team? I guess this is why they play the games, to expose the frauds and the inflated rankings that teams get based more on the jersey they wear (how many times this past week did we hear the question "Is the U back?" - VTech's answer is "NO!") than their play on the field.

Both of these cases prove a point. Perhaps we should be waiting until a few weeks into the season before allowing any polls to be created. I know they get people excited about their teams and their seasons but the fact is, these early polls are ludicrous. Rankings based on what someone did last year is inadequate. Even if a team has mostly the same personnel, there are always changes and just removing one person from playing on the field does not tell you the whole picture on what a difference that will make off the field for some of these kids. Let's play a few weeks and then base rankings on what was actually accomplished on the field, then we will have rankings on results and not on expectation. The other downside is it keeps teams down that deserve to be elevated.

Case in point - Houston. For the second straight week, Houston defeated a Big 12 opponent. Granted this time it was on their home field as opposed to their victory in Stillwater last week but that should not diminish what they accomplished. Houston has beaten Oklahoma State who is ranked #14 on the road and defeated a Texas Tech team that gave Texas all they could handle the week before. Yet somehow they are still ranked below Penn State (who has beaten no one of consequence) and even ranked below Oklahoma State in the coaches poll (if any coach can give me a good reason for this I would LOVE to hear it).

Houston was the only team to come in and actually win their "Prove-It" game. From Ole Miss and Miami as rehashed above, to Cal's embarrassment at Autzen, to Penn State losing to Iowa at home, to Washington following up their big victory over USC with a loss to Stanford, to North Carolina proving they aren't ready to be an ACC front runner. They all fell flat when they had their chance. Yet Houston does not get the respect they deserve for their accomplishment. For beating two teams that were unranked, Miami because #9 and people were talking national title. For beating a national title contender and another respectable opponent Houston gets #12 and "maybe" making the BCS. Next week, Houston has UTEP which should be an easy win for them but it still sits as a potential trap game considering they have another high-profile matchup with an SEC foe, Mississippi State, in two weeks. Maybe two more victories will put them where they belong.

So far, I am enjoying this season and all the exciting games and storylines which have unfolded. But let's take with a grain of salt the talk of "big upsets" when the teams falling were probably a little too high to begin with.

- On a side note, kudos to Frank Spaziani and the Eagles on their stirring victory against Wake Forrest this weekend. After the shame from the Clemson loss, you have to give the coaching staff and the players credit for pulling it together and getting a much needed victory.