- Montréal Carabins (4-1) — The Billboard Top 10 analogy is a good crutch. The Carabins have the current chart-topper and Laval has the more impressive body of work, but the survey's focus is on this week.
- Laval Rouge et Or (4-1) — The whole world has seen that clip of four-year-old Josh Sacco giving the Herb Brooks speech from Miracle. Rest assured Rouge et Or fans are taking comfort in the, "If we play 'em 10 times, they might win nine" part.
Laval and Montréal are 1 and 1A, but the gut feeling was to give more weight to the latter meeting and take into account the Carabins' key injuries in the earlier game. Even some Laval fans on the dot-org feel Montréal has earned top spot. - Calgary Dinos (3-1) — Have scored 130 points in three games and the one loss was essentially a tie.
- Queen's Golden Gaels (5-0) — Unbeaten, untied and unassuming.
- Western Mustangs (4-1) — The three-spot rule has been observed.
- St. Francis Xavier X-Men (4-0) — I will allow availability bias might be playing hell. It is hard for an Ontario voters to get a full measure of an AUS team, especially one which has not been 4-0 in quite some time.
- Saskatchewan Huskies (3-1) — A team should not get docked for a road win over a respectable team, even when it was semi-halfway gift-wrapped for them. It's toss-up which Huskies go seventh and which go eighth.
- Saint Mary's Huskies (3-1) — Their Oct. 17 trip to McGill should be a good litmus test. There is a sneaking suspicion Saint Mary's will move up soon.
- Guelph Gryphons (3-2) — Are carrying the banner for all four 3-2 teams in the OUA. See No. 10.
- Alberta Golden Bears (2-3) — Hear this one out: The Golden Bears have Canada West's second-best point differential and each loss was within a score (one, three and seven points). By Pettapiecian calculation, Alberta is ninth in Simple Ranking System dating from the start of 2008.
Besides, a 2-3 team being ranked is no weirder than seeing McGill in Top 10, or the OUA having four ranked teams.
Top 10 Fail: Sager bombs on his ballot
Jim Mullin of CKNW in Vancouver, who helps run the UFRC/CIS Top 10, noted last night that there were four different selections for No. 1 from the first 10 voters to send in ballots. That would suggest Calgary and Queen's also got first-place votes.
It has been said in the past and I agree. Saint Mary's lost to St.FX (a Top 10 team) in week one in a close game at X's new field and dropped from #4 to #10 in the so called rankings (serious punishment for a close loss)Now Western lost to an unranked team (McMaster) and only drops by 3 spots? Someone might bring up that "Western beat SMU last season in the Bowl game" but funny how many forget that before that Bowl game SMU was winning the AUS Title almost every year and in 2007 laid a beating on Laval and then went on the the Vanier Cup. Up to last season Western was at best middle team in a weak OUA divison and now all of a sudden they have a good season and everyone sees them as this great team yet Saint Mary's is forgot about and always get ranked in lower spots of this Top 10. It is clear that the people voting are not seeing all the teams in all four divisions and that the OUA year in and year out are having teams in the Top 10 that either do not belong or get ranked over teams they have no right being ranked over. This is nothing more then bias voting and ignorance of the people doing the voting they need to look at the Big Picture and vote with honesty and not with bias! This week the only team from the OUA that should be voted ahead of either X or SMU is Queens and anything is just another slap in the face to the AUS as a whole!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteWhen will you insignificants come to understand that when people talk about Canada, as a nation, they are really just referring to Ontario?
Go Stangs Go
Careful, you wouldn't want Ontario to just 'forget' to send its cheque for transfer payments this month.
ReplyDeleteX was unranked at the time it played Saint Mary's, actually.
ReplyDeleteAlso, Western has won two championships in a row in a 10-team conference.
Saint Mary's has won two in a row in a four-team conference.
If there is any bias, it is for mathematical probability, so save your splenetic rantings.
I also said it is quite likely those teams could be higher, but I don't have enough evidence.
We almost have the exact same Top 10 this week sager, 1-6 and 10 are the same, I have the sme teams for 7, 8 and 9 in there but in a different order. I agree Alberta deserves to be there, and I will cringe if MAC is in there after beating Western since they were unable to score an offensive touchdown against Queen's or Laurier.
ReplyDeleteGuelph deserves some real credit, they rely on Dunk not just as a QB but their main option on offence and they still pulled out the win. That deserves some credit.
I agree the bottom of the rankings are extremely hard to determine...well the entire rankings are hard to determine! But hey, that's what makes them fun :)
Guelph beat Waterloo without Dunk.
ReplyDeleteWell, bully for them although I wouldn't want to go up against the Gee Gees without him, not with their leaky D.
Still, it all worked out for the Gryphons.
Dunk served his suspension for his sin and will be back for a pivotal game against Ottawa.
My suspicion is that both punters will feel like the Maytag repairman in this game, as their services won't be required.
Both Ottawa and Guelph should rack up some gaudy numbers which makes this game a must watch.
Too bad for the Friday evening start time, because it won't be covered by The Score.
Too bad fewer than 3,000 bottoms will be in the stands watching this tilt....syrely a game like this deserves far better.
Anonymous, I agree that it's unfortunate that there will be so few fans out to see the pivotal match-up between Ottawa and Guelph. Ottawa is a difficult football market at the best of times and Friday night of Thanksgiving weekend just makes it that much more difficult. Here's hoping Ottawa doesn't go 0-3 at home.
ReplyDelete1-Laval - Lost 1 game in 2 years (without starting QB)deserve to still be #1
ReplyDelete2 - Montreal - Beat Laval, CIS's toughest division!
3 - Calgary - Getting better each game. As long as Glavic's knee holds up this team can go toe to toe with anyone in the CIS! Blake Nill knows how to win!
4 - Queens - Some questions that they might have played a weak schedule so far (the litmis test will be this weekend) but still 4 - 0 and have a great QB in Danny Brannigan!
5 - X - 4 - 0 and did beat a possible Vanier Cup level team in SMU (rematch will be a dandy hope it gets televised). X has a great defense and they are unbeaten.
6 - SMU - Seem to explode when they need to but if they can put a true 60 minutes into a game can do some damage. Jack Creighton is getting better each game he plays (480 yards in passing last week) I never count them out!
7 - Western - Great offence, defence has given up too many points not sure they can handle above teams offence.
8 - Saskachewan - Still a good team and well coached, could make some noise in the playoffs!
9 - Guelph - This team is more then just Dunk. Can pull and upset in any given game! Don't count them out come playoff time in the OUA!
10 - McGill - I give them the nod over Ottawa, Simon Fraser, Alberta or even Mac who are all worthy of the #10 spot but for one reason "they are in The Q and playing teams like Laval and Montreal gives them the right be in this spot as none of those other teams face anyone as strong!
I think it is harder to play the same team twice in the same season (in some cases three times) then it is to play each team once (learn tendencies of a team and you build bad blood). I wonder how The Mustangs and Gales or Dinos and Green Huskies would like to play each other twice in the same regular season as both StFX and Smu have to do?
ReplyDeleteor Laval & Monteal?
ReplyDelete