Football Top 10: Clan drop out, Gryphons debut

Queen's and Montréal flip-flop in the 4-5 slots and Simon Fraser plunges all the way to 11th. If only the Top Ten had room for 11 teams, like the Big 10 Conference. (You know the joke about how that happened, right? Ohio State was in charge of counting.)

Worth nothing: Western dipped after a walkover vs. Windsor. However, No. 8 Laurier, No. 9 Saint Mary's and No. 10 Guelph all took a leap in support after wins over teams which were a combined 5-19 last season.
  1. Laval Rouge et Or (no change)
  2. Western Mustangs (-11)
  3. Saskatchewan Huskies (+39)
  4. Calgary Dinos (+116)
  5. Queen's Golden Gaels (+247)
  6. Montréal Carabins (-192)
  7. St. FX X-Men (+336)
  8. Laurier Golden Hawks (+201)
  9. Saint Mary's Huskies (+73)
  10. Guelph Gryphons (+103)

    Also receiving votes: Simon Fraser (-673), Sherbrooke (+31), Alberta (+3), Ottawa (-43), Regina (97), McMaster (+1).
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21 comments:

  1. Anyone who caught the Laurier-Waterloo tilt knows that the Hawks looked like s***. Now, before anyone moans about the lose of Thompson just stop. . . stop. Thompson's gone and the Hawks have to move on, so to do voters. If it wasn't Waterloo the Hawks would be 1-2. The voters really blew this one.

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  2. Look for Guelph to move up the rankings next weekend. They will play western tough. This will be the best Offence they have faced thus far.

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  3. Agree - WLU has a piss-poor offence and does not merit a top 10 spot. And considering who Guelph has beaten, why the hell are they in there?

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  4. Guelph's offence is strong but their Defence is not, I expect tehy will let up far too many points and the Western D will be too strong for them. Yes they'll score a bunch but not enough, and they'll remain one-sided.

    Laurier is also a one-sided team, they have an impressive D but little support from their Offence. SuperfunHappySlide you can't argue with their D, UW scored off trick plays this past week. But they're not a rounded team this season because of the issues at QB.

    Now, having said that, my question is who do you put in there instead? There's mass confusion right across the country once you get out of the top 2 teams in each conference. So who deserves it instead in your opinion?

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  5. Not that they're a top 10 team, and it certainly won't help going to Quebec City this weekend, but I think Bishop's is a little better than they've let on. Better than Laurier is a possibility.

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  6. Because you ask the question... We don't want to sound too "belly buttonner", but we think Sherby should be somewhere around #9 or #10. They had a bad game in their system, but they're a good team with one of the best RB in the country (Fils) and a more than adequate QB (Shoiry). Their defense has a lot of potential...

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  7. Deux Fans:

    I disagree with you. Sherby barely won against BU at home (statistically, BU actually had the upper hand). They had a big loss against McGill and yes, they beat Concordia but not convincingly (despite this one being a home game). Shoiry has been sub par thus far and Sherby's schedule from now on is arguably the toughest in the nation. I see them lose 4, possibly 5 of their last 5 games. They will barely make the payoffs, if they make them.

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  8. Saint Mary's is being ranked way to low. I'm sure as the season goes on they will climb back to the top 2-3 (that is assuming the voters from Ontario are honest enough to vote with their heads and not their hearts by giving votes to OUA teams (other then Western) that clearly do not deserve it.

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  9. Oddly enough, two weeks ago the OUA coaches ranked Saint Mary's fifth and the Quebec-Atlantic coaches put them fourth.

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  10. But oddly enough we keep seeing teams like Queens and Laurier ranked ahead of SMU and anyone that knows CIS football knows that is a crock of doo doo! I agree that SMU will soon climb to the top 3 at least and I will take it a step more and say that they will make it to the VC!

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  11. Fair points. The thing with a Top Ten is it is only for this week based off the previous week, not what we think might happen, not what happened across the past 5, 10, 15 years.

    It owes more to the Billboard Top Ten in music. Are the ten songs on that chart the best songs ever, or even over the last 5-10 years? One would hope not.

    There is little point in getting pent-up over what is an unscientific opinion poll. It drives debate. End of the day, it doesn't matter. I vote because it's a privilege.

    Also, Queen's and Laurier are higher in this week's poll than I ranked them, for what it is worth (not much).

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  12. SMU is ranked lower but then again looking at interlock play of the past few years and the Bowl result from last season specifically many could (and some do) argue that the AUS conference as a whole is weaker tahn the rest. This weekend there's a great opportunity to prove that notion wrong however as both X and SMU should be favoured in their games, if they can win both sides will receive more praise.

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  13. SMU has won most of the games in the interlock then they have lost and they smashed Laval in 2007 in the playoffs. Last year they went to Western with a first year QB who had 3 games under his belt (check the stats SMU totally outplayed Western and had double the offensive but a young QB who tossed 2 pics that cost them the win). Anyone involved in football will tell you that the OUA as a whole is by far the weakest division of the four and a team like Mt Alison would look a lot better playing the bad teams in the OUA. SMU went to a bowl game last year and Saskatchewan did not yet they are ranked above SMU? If history plays a part then Laval and SMU should be ranked 1 & 2 year in and year out.

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  14. I'm sure Saint Mary's players will just take the slap in the face they get from the CIS rankings and do what they do best WIN FOOTBALL GAMES! I expect to see them and Laval in the 2010 Vanier Cup!

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  15. A lot of passion today ... if you feel so strongly, PUT A NAME BEHIND IT. How can you be trusted to say what "anyone involved with football will tell you" when you're hiding in the shadows?

    Anyway,

    1. The first criteria for the Top Ten is performance during the current season. It's hard to put a 1-1 team there.

    2. Honestly, if a player needs an opinion poll to get motivated, then they and their coaches are not doing much of a job. And Saint Mary's coaches and players do a good job; their record over time is very good.

    3. History does not play much of a part. The What Is is that we are talking about this season;

    The one before it is relevant, the one before that is but less so, and so on and so on.

    4. Checking the stats: Saint Mary's had 422 in net offence, Western had 369. That is not twice as much. Saint Mary's also had 85 more yards in penalties. Did the first year QB take all of those, too?

    5. If history plays a part, at least get it right. It would be Laval (Vanier record: 5-0) and Western (6-6) ranked 1-2. Calgary (4-2), Saint Mary's (3-6) and Saskatchewan (3-6) would be the next three.

    The pro-AUS, anti-OUA arguments are particularly obtuse because no one should stake things on, "Oh, if only we had weaker competition." Mount Allison would be 3-5, tops, in the OUA. Also, say this much for the OUA: A bad team in that conference means one gift win for almost everyone, in the AUS, it means two.

    Anyway, the AUS might be able to split the interlocking games 2-2 this week and maybe go 3-1, that would be great if that happens.

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  16. @Anonymous 4:26, since the beginning of the Intelock, SMU has a 2-8 record against QUFL teams. Against the Carabins, they have a 0-3 record, and we won decisively last year in Halifax. And you think they should be rated #2?

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  17. Come on, Deux Fans. He spoke straight from the heart and said SMU has won most of its interlock games. You looked it up -- and you probably used a computer to do it -- and found evidence to the contrary.

    Well, that is just a slavish devotion to statistics. We can't have that among people who are fans of a sport played by university students.

    I hope that causes the sarcasm detector to have a meltdown.

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  18. Let's face it, the CIS Top 10 doesn't mean a hill of beans when all is said and done because there is a national playoff, unlike NCAA Div 1 football.
    If SMU is as good as this joker says they are...and I'd bet they aren't...they'll play their way into the Vanier Cup and win.
    Or perhaps not.
    ANd BTW...Ottawa U had over 500 yds against Western with a relatively inexperienced QB but still lost.
    What does that mean?
    Probably nothing...except stats are for losers.
    As far as I am concerned, SMU hasn't been worth a damn since Nill was coaching them.

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  19. I'm not a SMU fan but I watched them take on Western last year and there is certainly something to be said for their physical play. They ran the ball, almost at will, while the score was close and if Creighton had a little more experience the purple pony may have ended the day very sad. This year Creighton's a little older and Milson Jones' kids are back for another kick at the can. SMU will be tough this year and I don't know who in Canada West could stop their running attack.

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  20. I always got Chris Skinner and Milson Jones confused. I think it's because both were a little overrated.

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  21. Nice. I always felt bad that Tim McCray would return kickoffs, catch passes, break big gainers and then end up with only about two touchdowns at the end of the season, since Jones got the ball on the goal line. Thankfully, there were no CFL fantasy football leagues in 1989.

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