Sangarin Poll Sunday Dec. 11

[RS]

Some food for thought on this Sunday morning. The Sangarin Poll has the Summit League rated #12 today compared to the Horizon's #15. Who would have thought that would happen? Do you think a team challenge would actually favor the Summit? Has Butler's demise in the rankings caused the Horizon League's overall rating to fall? I for one still think the Horizon from top to bottom is better than the #15 Rating. However the Dakota teams and Oakland have certainly enhanced the Summit League's rating.

[valpotx]

This will right itself in the coming weeks I imagine.

[sectionee]

valpotx is right on.  It's early, any statistic or rating at this point can change drastically in one weekend.

[covufan]

An early anomoly.  Remember, Sagarin and the others are not polls, but rankings using 'their' system.  RealTimeRPI also has the Summit League above the Horizon.  This will self correct over the next several weeks, once all teams are in league play.

I will admit that the Summit League is much more competitive, top to bottom, than in prior years.  They also have many more teams in the Top 200 of most rankings than previous years.  I don't think we'll see anyone from the Summit in the final four anytime in the future, though.

[wh]

An early anomaly.  Remember, Sagarin and the others are not polls, but rankings using 'their' system.  RealTimeRPI also has the Summit League above the Horizon.  This will self correct over the next several weeks, once all teams are in league play.

I will admit that the Summit League is much more competitive, top to bottom, than in prior years.  They also have many more teams in the Top 200 of most rankings than previous years.  I don't think we'll see anyone from the Summit in the final four anytime in the future, though.

I'm afraid the "anomaly" are Butler and Detroit.  When the two teams picked to finish 1st and 2nd in your conference can't beat anybody OOC, you're conf. RPI is going to take a major hit.  Looking ahead at Butler's OOC schedule, it would appear that they (and the conference) are going to continue to take a hit.  To add insult to injury, once we get into conf. play our relative conference position is not going to change much, even if Butler and Detroit improve by then.  I'm not trying to sound critical of Butler.  They have done an awesome job of elevating our conf. RPI over our first 4 years in the league.  They just happen to be in a rebuilding year, which even very good programs have from time to time.  Unfortunately, Detroit is a different story - another year of not living up to expectations - different reasons, same result.

[vu72]

wh is correct (as usual!) about the Horizon's problems in the Sagarin ratings.  The problem lies with Butler and Detroit who are ranked 200 and 231 (out of 345) this morning.  To put that in perspective, since the records were started in 98-99, the worst Butler has ever been ranked was 166th in 04-05.  In 03-04 they finished 141 but other than those two years they have consistently been in the top 100 and probably in the top 50 or higher.

Valpo is currently ranked 119.  The Horizon has pulled ahead of the MAC and now is just one slot behind the Summit 13th to 12th.

As pointed out, we still have a bunch of non-conference games so the Horizon can continue to rise but winning is the only way to get higher!!

[Crusader03]

valpotx is right on.  It's early, any statistic or rating at this point can change drastically in one weekend.

Exactly.  This is all a product of Butler and Detroit struggling early.  Once they get things turned around, I'm sure you'll see the ratings climb for the HL.