Football: Our Top 10 ballots (but with uncertainity in the 8, 9, 10 spots)

It's time for our second look at the FRC-CIS Top 10 voters' poll and a rundown of how our staff's ballots compare. Click through and note our lack of Guelph.


Official results (points):

1. Laval (500, all 40 first-place votes)
2. Ottawa (435)
3. Montreal (357)
4. Calgary (328)
5. Western (313)
6. Saskatchewan (253)
7. Alberta (168)
8. McMaster (86)
9. Regina (68)
10. Acadia (57)


Neate Sager's ballot and explanation (difference, if any, from official poll in parentheses):

1. Laval: Up where they belong.
2. Ottawa: Only 3-0 team in the OUA. Could go Carbs/Gee-Gees or Gee-Gees/Carbs.
3. Montreal: Second-best team in the best conference.
4. Saskatchewan (+2): Three-spot drop for losing by three scores at home, same principle was applied to Calgary last week.
5. Western: Could be higher, but did lose to Saskatchewan decisively (40-12) in that national non-conference exhibition game.
6. Calgary (-2): Won starting a true freshman.
7. Alberta: Putting them in last year when they were below .500 looks prescient now. Need to play someone better.
8. Bishop's (+10): A couple plays from a 2-0 start.
9. Queen's (+4): 3rd in RPI, 6th in SRS since start of 2008 -- some credit is due for recent success. (Guelph, on the other hand, is 17th.)
10. UBC (+1): Four teams from parity-crazy Can West seems more appropriate than four from any other conference, plus they had a huge road win.

Jared Book:

1. Laval
2. Montreal (+1)
3. Ottawa (-1)
4. Calgary
5. Saskatchewan (+1)
6. Alberta (+1)
7. Western (-2)
8. McMaster
9. Regina
10. Concordia (+6)


Andrew Bucholtz's:

1. Laval
2. Ottawa
3. Calgary (+1)
4. Western (+1)
5. Montreal (-2)
6. Saskatchewan
7. Alberta
8. Regina (+1)
9. McMaster (-1)
10. Queen's (+3)

Explanation: I've kept Laval at the top because no one else really impressed too much. Saskatchewan plummeted thanks to their loss to UBC; Ottawa moved up thanks to the Canada West carnage. Calgary gets points for winning without their stars, while Western continues to look very good. The AUS wreckage means no Eastern team made my ballot this week; I don't think Acadia or Mount Allison have true Top-10 talent, but it's tough to argue for 0-1 Saint Mary's or St. FX either. The bottom five of this ballot was far tougher to decide on than the top five, as there are a lot of teams that have decent cases; I put the Canada West pack 6-8 and the OUA pair 9-10. UBC was the toughest cut thanks to their win over Saskatchewan, but Alberta and Regina have been very good so far this year too, and someone had to be left out.


Evan Daum's ballot:

1. Laval: Remain undefeated after their win last week and looking powerful yet again.
2. Ottawa: Undefeated OUA squad that continues to look very impressive thanks in large part to a terrific pivot.
3. Calgary (+1): It's harder to justify this pick, but I still think Calgary is the best team out West and won last week with five all-Canadians out of the lineup.
4. Montreal (-1): Remain undefeated after their win last week over Concordia and deserve a top five spot.
5. Saskatchewan (+1): It's been Jekyll and Hyde with the Huskies. They went into Calgary and beat the Dinos, then came home and got thumped by an average UBC team.
6. Western (-1): The better of the 2-1 OUA teams in my opinion, but not as good as the Huskies who beat them earlier this year.
7. McMaster (+1): Still a very good team, but Western got the edge in my poll via their victory over the Marauders last week.
8. Alberta (-1): 2-0 for the first time since 2005, and looking a lot better than people thought. A win in the next two weeks makes this team a legitimate threat.
9. Acadia (+1): 1-0 after an opening win over Saint Mary's gets them in. How good they really are remains to be seen.
10. Saint Mary's (+2): I'll give them the benefit of the doubt after week one and say they're still one of the ten best teams in the nation.