Top 10 fail: X'd out, Laval back on top (Sager's ballot)

Key questions for this week:
  1. Laval Rouge et Or (5-1) — The natural order is thus restored.
  2. Calgary Dinos (5-1) — Averaging close to 40 points per game in a league where no one else averages 30; their run defence is also Can West's best, allowing just 4.3 per carry. Yet they still need help to get home field for the playoffs.
  3. Queen's Golden Gaels (7-0) — The country's lone unbeaten team.
  4. Montréal Carabins (4-2) — A three-spot drop seems fair since the Sherbrooke game was on the road. Those with longer memories will remember
  5. Saskatchewan Huskies (5-1) — Are playing more like a Brian Towriss team each week.
  6. Western Mustangs (5-2) — Nudging Queen's up one and moving Western down a spot seems fair after the Mustangs had an almost perfect second half on the road, save for one drive-extending facemask penalty and the game's final 76 seconds.
  7. Saint Mary's Huskies (5-1) — It's an either-or with SMU and Western. The Mustangs have lost two games by eight points. A few weeks ago, Saint Mary's needed a late TD to avoid losing at home to Sherbrooke. The amount of flags in the McGill game was also unsettling.
  8. Ottawa Gee-Gees (5-2) — Not even really a darkhorse for the Yates Cup but a strong contender.
  9. Sherbrooke Vert et Or (3-3) — Taking the Q's third-best over the OUA's fourth-best or AUS' second-best seems like a safe bet most days of the week. Beating Montreal by a three-score margin is a lot more impressive than beating Guelph by a touchdown at this point in the season.
  10. Alberta Golden Bears (3-3) — Haven't been out of a game all season.
Why not?
  • St. Francis Xavier X-Men (5-1 AUS) — There is every expectation St. FX will stay in the Top 10 after rising to No. 6, but a three-touchdown loss at home at this point in the season is a pretty big matzo ball hangin' out there.

  • Laurier Golden Hawks (5-2 OUA) — A sneaking suspicion is this a classic case of winning with defence not being as sexy as winning with offence. Laurier loyalists seem to be kind of meh about a good young team. Safety/heat-seeking missile Courtney Stephen might be a household name, relatively speaking, if more of us in the media hyped up defence as much as offence. Laurier's playing well heading toward the playoffs.

  • McMaster Marauders (5-2 OUA) — Two weekends ago was Thanksgiving. Going to overtime vs. Windsor was the Marauders' Slapsgiving. One hundred seventy penalty yards and a whack of turnovers should leave a white-hot burnin' on the side of your face.



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7 comments:

  1. We are close Sager here are mine....

    1. Laval
    2. Calgary
    3. Montreal
    4. Queens
    5. Saint Mary's
    6. Saskatchewan
    7. Western
    8. Sherbrooke
    9. Alberta
    10. St. Frances Xavier

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  2. Montreal might beat Queen's in a game, on that rationale you could put the Carabins there. The counter-point is we can't vote on what might happen (they've never played), so the none-loss team goes over the two-loss team.

    As noted, I don't anticipate X dropping out and McMaster likely stays too. Sherbrooke will probably get a lot of votes, but not enough.

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  3. No respect for Queen's? 7 - 0? Come on...

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  4. By the way, your #9 (Sherbrooke) will likely not make the playoffs since they can't manage to win a game on the road, not even against McGill... I believe Laurier or St. FX are better choices.

    Queen's at #3 is a bit of a stretch in my opinion since they're the only undefeated team in CIS. I would give them #1 for that reason.

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  5. Ryah: Queen's may be 7-0 but outside of Western who have they played? Teams get better and are strong based on their competition. Laval clearly belongs at the top (1 loss in 2 seasons)and Montreal has proven that they have the horses to beat Laval. Calgary is playing in a tough CanWest and have had to play a lot tougher teams then has Queen's. I would like to see how Queen's would do against either of the Huskies as I believe they would have their hands full (providing the Atlantic Huskies are healthy). Queen's being ranked in a 3 or 4th is where they belong only due to a beefed up record against some pretty bad teams.

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  6. An argument can be made for Sherbrooke. They have had a pretty bad schedule having to play Laval 2 times, Montreal, Saint Mary's and Concordia. If they had the chance to play Toronto, York, Guelph, Waterloo, Windsor or McMaster I would think they too could have built up a 6-0 record. The same could be said for McGill. If I had a vote in the rankings I would rate based on the teams played as well as win/loss record as the so called middle or even weak teams in Quebec could be competing for top spot in the OUA.

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  7. Sherbrooke is only playing Laval once but Concordia and Montreal twice. Sherbrooke can beat any team at home, but they would probably fall to middle-of-pack Ontario teams like Guelph or McMaster on the road, just like they did to Concordia and McGill earlier this season. No way Bishop's, Sherbrooke, McGill or Concordia could be competing for top spot in Ontario this year.

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