The College Crosse Week 11 Aggregation For April 24, 2017.

What's going on Nation?! Can you believe it? The regular season is almost over and The Big BBQ 2017 is set to begin. You better buckle in for the home stretch, as the next the 13 days before Selection Sunday on May 7th should be pretty wild.

Today, as usual, we try to help you all sort through the polls madness in our weekly Aggregation series. For those unfamiliar with the format, we compile all the major polls (Links for Week 11 polls: Inside Lacrosse, Lacrosse Magazine, and USILA Coaches Poll), plus Jason and my top 20 media ballot into one table below. Additionally, you can find the College Crosse Week 11 Top 20 here and you can find the updated NCAA RPI rankings here.

Let's go to the Big Board!

Comments.

All Hail Syracuse. Syracuse is your IL Media Poll #1 for the third week in a row. While that might not sound too impressive, you must remember that no team has been in sole possession of the #1 spot for more than one week all season long this year (Ed. Note: Denver was #1 in the Week 1 Media Poll, but then had to share it with Maryland in Week 2 and Week 3). Good work by the Orange.

D&D. While I had Ohio State & Maryland at 2 & 3 this week in my ballot, respectively, almost everyone else on the Aggregation Big Board put in Denver & Duke right behind Syracuse instead. I don’t have any qualms with the Pios & Blue Devils anywhere in the 2-5 range. While I believe both teams still have some question marks, given how well Duke & Denver have played the last 4-5 weeks, it is not unreasonable to have them right behind Syracuse this week.

Maryland. Despite the OT loss to Ohio State this weekend, Maryland still looks like one of the top 5 teams in the nation and a real Final Four contender. Maryland might not be as good a team as they were last year, but they are still a very formidable squad. Indeed, the Terps have only lost three games this year, and they were all by a total of 3 points, with two of those losses coming in OT.

Rutgers. The Scarlet Knights are not going to the Big Ten Tournament this year after making it to the Big Ten Championship game in 2016. While that will surely disappoint Rutgers fans, all is not lost. While RU’s definitely a bubble team right now, several other teams also in the running for that last at-large bid have fallen flat the last few weeks as well, which still gives Rutgers some hope of sneaking into The Big BBQ. Additionally, Rutgers plays Ohio State this weekend, and a win vs. the Buckeyes should give RU a significant bump on their resume and might even be enough to get Rutgers in the tournament on Selection Sunday.

Now beating Ohio State is easier said than done. The Buckeyes have the #5 RPI this week and they have three top-8 RPI wins on their resume, Maryland (#3 RPI), Johns Hopkins (#4 RPI), and Denver (#8 RPI). Regardless, while the task may be daunting, the point is that Rutgers still has a chance to win their way into The Big BBQ with a victory this weekend. If Rutgers loses to OSU, they’ll need Albany & Denver to win America East & Big East, respectively, and hope that the god’s smile in the favor on Selection Sunday.

Providence. Tough stretch for the Friars this past week, as they lost an OT game to Brown last Tuesday and then got caught in the Denver buzzsaw on Saturday. The two losses dropped them from our Aggregation Big Board this week. Providence is presently tied for 2nd in the Big East, with Villanova coming up on Saturday. Should the Friars prevail this weekend, they’ll capture the #2 seed in the Big East Tournament, add a nice RPI win to their resume, and probably vault back onto the Big Board next week.