Men All-D1 College Rankings Week 2
Men All-D1 College Rankings Week 2
This is our second week of what we're calling the All-D1 rankings, which basically takes out the CRAA teams (that's the easiest way to explain it).
We have several changes, which is something we warned you about. Our early rankings are based on the best information available and when the actual games happen, we have better data.
Some highlights include Notre Dame jumping 19 places to #8 after beating Western Michigan, and Kentucky jumping eight places after beating Louisville. Now, here's the problem with that. Notre Dame's jump is based largely on our assumption that Western Michigan (who we had at #5 and dropped to #13) is a very strong team. This is probably true, but let's assume, for a moment, that WMU will end up having a down year and Louisville, who were competitive in a loss to Kentucky, are actually a top-four team ... then the basis for the current ranking is wrong, and we will have to reevaluate.
Notre Dame's high ranking, for now, is based on one game. If that game turns out to not be as indicative as we thought, they could well drop down even if they keep winning.
A few more changes. We had our preseason rankings and then waited a week before unleashing Week 2, so we have to take into account Fairfield's close loss to Iona. Wheeling needed to show us something to get into the Top 50, and while a 76-point win over small-college Franciscan wasn't what we'd call dispositive, it's enough for now.
Speaking of enough for now—Iowa Centra CC's win wasn't what you'd call "convincing" but we're keeping them at #1 for now. But we're watching it closely.
We moved Florida Atlantic up to #23 despite the fact they didn't play a game. Why? Well, the explanation is very technical but can be summed up this way: we screwed up. Basically we left FAU in our "what do we do about these guys" list and didn't really take them out of it. We also didn't take into account the spring Florida U23 competition, which is a bit of a rankings minefield, but which a team of all FAU players won. We should have had them ranked higher, so we do now.