Hockey Club gets left in the cold
Andrew Fergerson
Issue date: 3/1/10 Section: Sports
|
Scratch that, a fantastic one. One that should see them heading into regional play. Unfortunately, that’s not the case this year, due to a polling system I find to be a little bit flawed.
Starting with UM-Flint’s accomplishments, the team finished 21-9-3, a very strong year that put them second in their region in points.
They finished in the standings just behind Davenport University, who placed fourth in the rankings, so no harm there.
However, I have an issue with the fact that when the rankings were released on Feb. 7, there were still games to be played. In fact, most all of the teams ranked in the top 12 were playing that weekend, but what do the voters care? It’s not like these guys are playing for anything, right?
If you look back on the last couple of weeks, you will also see many of the teams ranked ahead of UM-Flint lost. Not just once, but many times over. A team like Calvin College who, at the last ranking on Jan. 17, was ranked sixth. Since then, Calvin put forth a record of 3-4 to close out the season, losing their last four games.
They only dropped two spots.
Another team was Lansing Community College, who went 3-5 from the last ranking. Two of those three wins came against Lake Superior State, a team that went 18-17-1 across the season.
Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne University, who played all of 21 games, and hadn’t played since Jan. 24. UM-Flint played out the entire season, playing 12 more games than they did.
As for UM-Flint’s ending to the season, they finished 7-2 from the Jan. 17 rankings, including winning their last 6 games. Despite all of this, the UM-Flint team moved from number 12 to….number 12.
What?
For those of you who follow any college sport with rankings, or even if you don’t but understand how sports and competition work, you would know that when a team loses, they fall in ranking. And teams that win, and stay with me league voters, move up.
Instead what you have is teams that don’t play for a whole month, teams that lose a billion times and/or play fewer games in the regional tournament. Because, obviously, this system is working.
What really sucks about the situation is the effort this team put in this year. Going back to their tough first two seasons, then they come out firing like they did this year, but still get left out in the cold. I say rethink your plan. Especially when you know a team like this deserves better.
Andrew can be reached at afergers@umflint.edu.
Be the first to comment on this story