NCAA Lacrosse Rankings: College Crosse's Weekly Media Poll Ballot

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

• New this week: Georgetown, Boston University, and Fairfield. Dropped out this week: Towson, Villanova, and Harvard. Also seriously considered: Towson, Villanova, Harvard, Massachusetts, and Navy (in no particular order). The final three to four positions in the ballot remain the hardest thing to understand on the planet. I'm expecting a wide number of teams to earn votes this week, and it's likely due to the fact that the back of the poll is mud.
• Johns Hopkins: The Jays are probably going to fall out of the media poll today -- Johns Hopkins was 20th in the media poll last week and lost to Virginia on Saturday, dropping the team's record to 3-5 -- but . . . are there 20 teams better than Johns Hopkins? Seriously -- are there 20 teams better than Johns Hopkins? The team's record is ugly, but look at these losses: North Carolina (11-13), Princeton (15-16 (OT)), Syracuse (10-13), and Virginia (15-16 (OT)). There are lots of teams with bad luck, but Hopkins pissed off the universe something fierce in 2015. The Jays aren't exceptional, but there's more to Johns Hopkins than a simple 3-5 record.
• Marquette: The Eagles' drop has a little more to do with course correction than the team's loss to Georgetown (although the date with the Hoyas held influence). Marquette rose through an unblemished record and were originally seen a solid victories, even jumping a spot last week in the aggregated poll despite having a bye. Looking at Marquette's resume now -- and its metrics profile -- creates a different kind of situation: The wins against Lehigh, Hofstra, and Ohio State are pretty good but not great, one-goal losses that could have swung away from the Eagles. I think where Marquette is now is more indicative of the team's position in the national hierarchy.
• I took a big ol' swing at Georgetown this week. I don't think I've every moved a team into my ballot that significantly. I may regret this, but the Hoyas did drop Loyola and Marquette this week, teams that I think are pretty good.
• The rest of the ballot features mild shuffling: Maryland earns a pop for dropping Carolina; Albany was the beneficiary of Yale and Marquette moving back a little bit; I kind of kept Duke in the same region despite the way the Devs lost to Syracuse; and I credited Bucknell for the win over Brown more than the team's loss to the Terriers. The ballot is kind of the ballot at this point; seismic changes didn't seem neccesary.