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NCAA Lacrosse Rankings: College Crosse's Weekly Ballot (Week 11)

Everybody stinks or everybody is great. I don't know why.

By Hoya Suxa
Winslow Townson

In the interest of transparency, here's how I voted in the Inside Lacrosse media poll this week. Some brief explanations follow the ballot.

COLLEGE CROSSE WEEKLY MEDIA POLL BALLOT: WEEK 11
RANK TEAM PREVIOUS CHANGE
1. Loyola 2. +1
2. Duke 1. -1
3. Denver 3.
4. Johns Hopkins 6. +2
5. Notre Dame 9. +4
6. Syracuse 4. -2
7. North Carolina 5. -2
8. Maryland 7. -1
9. Pennsylvania 8. -1
10. Cornell 10.
11. Virginia 11.
12. Harvard 16. +4
13. Fairfield 14. +1
14. Yale 12. -2
15. Hofstra 13. -2
16. Bryant 15. -1
17. Drexel 20. +3
18. Albany NR
19. Lehigh 19.
20. Princeton 17. -3
  • New this week: Albany. Dropped out this week: Army. Also seriously considered: Penn State, Army, and St. Joseph's (in no particular order). I actually thought long and hard about doing a straight swap with St. Joseph's and Bryant, but decided against it. I think that the Bulldogs are a soft 16, and with St. Joseph's kind of existing just on the fringe of the top 20, I couldn't pull the trigger. I may regret that after the Northeast Conference Tournament this week, or I could look pretty smart. Whatever. I pushed Albany back into the run; I'm still not sold that the Great Danes are a complete team capable of running through whatever stands in front of them, but there aren't 20 teams better than Albany. They are the heaviest matchup-driven team in the nation, and that makes them an odd duck in a ranking of "best teams."
  • Notre Dame/Syracuse/Virginia/North Carolina/Maryland: The ACC Tournament did little to alleviate the competitive equality of the conference. I went with what's above, but it's not an accident that four of those teams are lumped right together on the ballot. I wouldn't freak out about specific placements at this point; the power of the poll -- in totem -- will smooth out the edges. I wasn't quite sure what to do with Virginia; it was tough to displace Pennsylvania and Cornell and thrust the Cavaliers ahead. It's really a block of these-teams-are-all-kind-of-the-same-to-me from four on back to 11.
  • Harvard: I gave the Crimson a bump this week. They're the biggest mover mostly because I had been slow-playing them for a while. I originally had Yale in the 13-hole, but gave the Stags a push based on their win against Ohio State. Harvard-Yale is going to be a show in the first round of the Ivy League Tournament.
  • 17-20: Your guess is as good as mine. I ended up leaving Lehigh exactly where I had them last week based on beating Navy and Army. I held on to Princeton despite seriously considering putting Penn State in that spot. I'm gambling on a Drexel move based on what the team has done in its winning streak and the Dragons' potential in the THUNDERDOME! Tournament.

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