"You've Gotta Be Kidding": Latest NCAA Rankings Are A Joke

http://www.uscho.com/rankings/d-i-mens-poll/

Maybe when the college hockey pollsters hit the off-season, they could work for Gary Larson's "The Far Side" comic strip. Perhaps that really is their plan, because they appear to be practicing with the latest USCHO.com rankings.

Thing is, nobody really seems to be laughing.

For the sake of example, let's look briefly at two teams benefiting from the polls "playing favorites," and contrast it with a team that plays a near-perfect weekend...only to fall further from the top.

The most obvious team benefiting from the good graces of the NCAA polls is "The" Ohio State University. OSU has failed to win a game in eight tries, going 0-4-4 in its last eight games. Over the weekend, they found themselves with a loss and a tie against recently-unranked Lake Superior State. The problem isn't so much the fact that Ohio State dropped a whopping four points in the polls--that, I can agree with.

It's the fact that they are still ranked 10th--meaning that they have gone winless in eight games, while still being ranked as a top-tier team. That's pathetic.

Second, look at Notre Dame. Now, I must commend the pollsters, because when UND lost twice to Western Michigan at the beginning of 2012, the Irish dropped from #3 to #7. Again, the problem comes when Notre Dame (2-4 in their last six games) is still ranked 8th in the country. I'm a tad more comfortable with UND's ranking than the Buckeyes, but seriously? You barely have to win a game anymore in this country.

So long as you were at one time back in October ranked higher than 13th.
Either that, or you happen to be a big-name program.

Take a smaller program now. One that has deserved to fall in the polls, but gets screwed over even when it wins. Welcome to Lake Superior State University. The Lakers have deserved to fall in the polls in their last couple weeks. That's okay! (notice I am giving the pollsters some credit). But explain this one to me:

LSSU shuts out #6 Ohio State 1-0. LSSU "ties" Ohio State 4-4, and wins the shootout.
(Recap: LSSU takes 5 out of 6 points from a top-tier team).

And then the Lakers receive less votes to be ranked than they did the previous week.
WHAT?!?!?!?
Oh yeah, and they got passed by Michigan State. Who, by the way, was swept over the weekend.
You've got to be kidding me.

Make your own judgments on the NCAA polls. The numbers speak for themselves.  You can talk "power rankings" and crap all you want. But the results go to show that rankings are being based less and less on how much a team wins.

They're becoming based on who the pollsters WANT to win.