The NSCAA preseason top 25 came out today. At least, I think it did. Honestly, I’m not entirely convinced they didn’t just change the date on the final poll from last season and recycle it – much like one day’s broccoli in the cafeteria mysteriously become the next day’s cream of broccoli soup (which worries me less than, say, fish sticks the day after sushi).
Ultimately, preseason polls don’t mean a heck of a lot, and as noted when I took my own stab at meaninglessness, the attrition this season makes sorting out the top tier of college teams all the more difficult. There really aren’t any right answers in early August. Nevertheless, it’s difficult to look at the NSCAA poll and believe many voters put much thought into how rosters have changed. The top seven teams are in exactly the same order as in the final poll last season, a rather remarkable bit of continuity considering a short list of the players no longer part of those teams includes: Tobin Heath, Whitney Engen, Casey Nogueira, Kristi Eveland, Ashlyn Harris (theme alert), Kelley O’Hara, Ali Riley, Lauren Cheney, Dea Cook, Kristina Larsen, Michelle Enyeart and Becky Edwards. Only South Carolina fell out of the top 10 between the end of last season and the preseason, dropping from No. 9 all the way to No. 12.
I appreciate the logic that the defending champion remains the champion until someone takes the crown from them (and by extension, College Cup teams remain College Cup teams, quarterfinalists remain quarterfinalists, etc.). You wouldn’t hear me complaining if preseason polls were abolished altogether. But as long as we have them, making them tributes to last season seems a little defeatist, no?
Again, polls don’t strike me as that big a deal, particularly the preseason variety. This isn’t a blood-boiling issue. But polls do play a roll in not only setting the perception of power for the season ahead but skewing surprises. Look back at just about any NCAA tournament bubble in recent seasons, and quality wins count, whether or not they’re officially recognized as selection criteria. And if we have it wrong from the start, getting it right later is only going to be that much more difficult.
Anyway, here is the preseason top 25, NSCAA style.
1. North Carolina
2. Stanford
3. UCLA
4. Notre Dame
5. Portland
6. Florida State
7. Boston College
8. Texas A&M
9. Santa Clara
10. Wake Forest
11. Florida
12. South Carolina
13. Penn State
14. California
15. Virginia Tech
16. Maryland
17. Virginia
18. Rutgers
19. USC
20. Wisconsin
21. Washington State
22. BYU
23. Oklahoma State
24. West Virginia
25. Central Florida
Also receiving votes: LSU, Oregon State, Memphis, San Diego, Marquette, Ohio State, Purdue, Auburn, Georgia, Michigan State, Dayton, Connecticut, Washington
Graham Hays 