This Week's new Rankings

[tornado]

Not sure if the usual Monday rankings will be out today due to the holidays, but the very first of the week's rankings is already out.

This week's CHN Top 50 is fresh off the press with the disclaimer:
"We're tired of listening to what biased team staffs and power-conference focused media members have to say about college basketball's best teams
The CHN Top 50 Power Ranking is "the" weekly ordering of the national picture"

http://www.collegehoopsnet.com/new/story/chn_top_50_december_2420825

Wichita State plummets from #6 to 15 with two losses.

Missouri State drops from #21 to 28

SIU up a bit from #44 to 40

Northern Iowa breaks into the rankings at #46

[tornado]

The AP Poll is out today, and here is a link to it.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/basketball/ncaa/12/25/poll.ap/index.html

Wichita State drops all the way to #16
Missouri State and SIU still treceiving votes.
New Mexico beats Wichita State and now gets a couple votes, even though they had a couple bad losses.



The new Coaches Poll also has little surprise, and matches the AP Poll from #1 through #8.

http://www.sportsline.com/collegebasketball/polls/coaches

[tornado]

Here is yet another weekly ranking that has Wichita State at #18, but also is the only one I have seen that also ranks Missouri State.
They have MSU at #21.

http://www.draftexpress.com/blogs.php?mod=comment&p=714

And the last of the weekly rankings is the Collegeinsider.com
Mid-Major Top 25.

http://www.midmajortop25.com/

Wichita State drops to #2 with Butler re-taking the #1 spot.
One voter even gives SIU a FIRST PLACE VOTE!
But Missouri State is #3, SIU is #5, UNI is #8, Creighton is #15, and.......

Bradley has finally earned enough respect to get ranked!

Bradley is #20 on this week's Mid-Major Top 25

Drake comes in at #25, and Evansville, Indiana State, and Illinois State are all getting votes (in that order.)

[Bravesfan]

The AP Poll is out today, and here is a link to it.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2006/basketball/ncaa/12/25/poll.ap/index.html

Wichita State drops all the way to #16
Missouri State and SIU still treceiving votes.
New Mexico beats Wichita State and now gets a couple votes, even though they had a couple bad losses.



The new Coaches Poll also has little surprise, and matches the AP Poll from #1 through #8.
http://www.sportsline.com/collegebas.../polls/coaches

Merry Christmas everyone!

That is better than some had predicted. Some people on other boards were predicting that WSU would fall right out of the top 25. Actually, 16th is still a good spot to be in, and a sign of respect for the Valley. A few wins, and they will be pushing the top 10 again real soon.

[TheAsianSensation]

I think everyone was paranoid WSU would drop further....and then, only dropping to 16th....the MVC is getting a fair amount of respect on this front.

[chitownBUB]

I think everyone was paranoid WSU would drop further....and then, only dropping to 16th....the MVC is getting a fair amount of respect on this front.

Wichita has two losses to New Mexico and USC, and both of those losses were by 3 and 4 pts respectively away from home, to teams that are top 100 RPI teams.

But recall, Kansas lost two games and one was a home game against a team that was RPI 150, yet Kansas still never dropped out of the top 15.
Pitt also lost two games back to back and only drops to #10.

So there clearly is a BCS bias still, as the midmajors have to do more to get in the Top 10, and find themselves falling more if they falter. It doesn't bother me because it always has been this way and always will.
The mid-majors have only come a little way so far.

[tornado]

The Coaches Poll, also known as the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 has the following coaches on their board doing the voting:

The USA TODAY/ESPN Board of Coaches is made up of 31 head coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The board for the 2006-07 season: Mike Adras, Northern Arizona, Dana Altman, Creighton, Tevester Anderson, Jackson State, Ronnie Arrow, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Eddie Biedenbach, North Carolina-Asheville, Jim Boeheim, Syracuse, Matt Brady, Marist, Rick Byrd, Belmont, Charlie Coles, Miami (Ohio), Dick Davey, Santa Clara, Steve Fisher, San Diego State, Pat Flannery, Bucknell, Tim Floyd, Southern California, Greg Graham, Boise State, Tom Green, Fairleigh Dickinson, Johnny Jones, North Texas, Jim Larranaga, George Mason, Bob McKillop, Davidson, Phil Martelli, Saint Joseph???‚¬?„?s, Ron ???‚¬?“Fang???‚¬?? Mitchell, Coppin State, Dave Odom, South Carolina, Matt Painter, Purdue, Doc Sadler, Nebraska, Joe Scott, Princeton, Jimmy Tillette, Samford, Bob Thomason, Pacific, Perry Watson, Detroit Mercy, Gary Williams, Maryland, Doug Wojcik, Tulsa, Ted Woodward, Maine, Rich Zvosec, Missouri-Kansas City.

(surprisingly well populated with mid-major guys).

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/mensbasketball/usatpoll.htm

[MacabreMob]

The Coaches Poll, also known as the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 has the following coaches on their board doing the voting:

(surprisingly well populated with mid-major guys).

Don't let that fool ya.

Never know if some of these Mid-Major coaches have strong ties to BCS conferences and actually support them more than Mid-Majors.

Jimmy Patsos at Loyola (Md), chariman of the Mid-major Top25, was a long time assistant to 'Whiny' Williams at Maryland. His BCS bias came out in his article he wrote earlier this year.

[MacabreMob]

Here's the link to Patsos article:

http://www.collegeinsider.com/patsos/