AVCA 4-20-2004 Poll

[OC24]

Seems they posted this early....
www.avca.org/collegiate/MenDIpoll/Menspoll4-20-04.asp

Rank School
1 BYU (14) 238 24-4 1
2 Long Beach State (2) 225
3 UCLA 209
4 Pepperdine 190
5 Hawai'i 173
6 Cal State Northridge 161
7 Penn State 136
8 UC Irvine 127
9 UC Santa Barbara 115
10 Ohio State 97
11 Ball State 67
12 IPFW 47
13 Loyola-Chicago 40
14 Stanford 38
15-tie Lewis 23
15-tie Pacific 23

Others receiving points and listed on two or more ballots: UC San Diego 7, USC 2

One team mentioned on only one ballot for a total of two combined points.

Dropped Out: None

[benwhipdrofn]

Well, it looks like it's BYU's ball game here, but don't forget until the finals, Lewis last year was ranked 4th or 5th until that last day. I have a feeling that UCLA and Pepperdine are not going to be dropped without a fight.

[AAVolley]

Funny how the poll doesn't reflect MPSF seedings going into the tournament. Just goes to show how arbitrary it can be sometimes.

[tigfan]

lol... how is stanford still above Pacific after Pacific beat them twice in the same week... including a sweep... on top of that, the Tigers finished better than the Cardinal in the Conference standings... no respect...

[IdahoBoy]

tigfan said:

lol... how is stanford still above Pacific after Pacific beat them twice in the same week... including a sweep... on top of that, the Tigers finished better than the Cardinal in the Conference standings... no respect...

Who else has Stanford lost to?

Who else has Stanford beaten?

Who else has Pacific lost to?

Who else has Pacific beaten?

[OC24]

Stanford lost to SC & SD among many others... The only reason they were ever high in the rankings is because they beat UCLA while UCLA was still in the dumpster early in the season... they did beat UCI twice but losing to USC & UCSD makes up for those.

Pacific beat UCSB, USC, UCSD 2x, & Stanford 2x and lost to USC once.

Goes to show how meaningless the poll can be sometimes though.... Stanford received many more points than Pacific despite having lost to them twice in the past week and consequently finishing below them in the season.

[fuzzball]

Too bad they can't take these 16 teams and seed them into one tournment. It would be interesting to see if any non-MPSF team made it to the final 8, much less the final four. It would be nice if the four best teams could reach the semi-finals rather than two MPSF teams and two that are not as competitive and apparently don't belong. If the power balance between east and west were more even the current system would make sense. This year, based on the ratings at least, two deserving teams will not be in the final four while two lesser teams will be. How can this be good for the fans of college volleyball?

[IdahoBoy]

16 teams would add two days to the Tournament, and likely a weekend. Not too mention travel and hotel costs for 12 extra teams!

12 teams would add two days as well, top 4 seeds would get byes while lower 8 would fight it out to face the top seeds. Would take two days, but only 8 extra teams travel and lodging.

8 teams would STILL be better! Seed them and let them at each other! Only 4 extra teams lodging and travel (and most likely, they'd all be from the West). Just add another day to the tourney. Sure, you'd lose preparation time, but it still could be one weekend!! I can't think of a situation where teams wouldn't prefer this!

[My2Sense]

IdahoBoy® said:

8 teams would STILL be better! Seed them and let them at each other! Only 4 extra teams lodging and travel (and most likely, they'd all be from the West). Just add another day to the tourney. Sure, you'd lose preparation time, but it still could be one weekend!! I can't think of a situation where teams wouldn't prefer this!

I completely agree with this. This is a NO BRAINER too. The current system is blatently unfair. The above format makes it fair.

[benwhipdrofn]

Well, I've kept quiet about this for a while and I probably should remain...but...hey, I’m not benwhipd for nothing )

While I completely agree that the one division should be allowed more entries because of the fact that most of the teams are superior, that would not help any of the Midwest or eastern programs and we'd see a bunch of colleges start to dump their men's volleyball programs. Now, who does that help? No one. If somewhere, there was a limit to how many you could have in a program, then that would give some other teams a chance at some better players. Example (and please don't think I’m trashing BYU because I'm not) we’ve already discussed that BYU has extremely good players on the bench. These players could quite possible be starters on other teams, thus helping out another program improve. If there aren't any limits to how many can be in a program, then one or two programs (or in this case most of the MPSF programs monopolize the majority of the outstanding players that could be starters on some of the MIVA or EIVA teams. There are about 38 Div I and II teams in the NCAA. That is a bunch of teams, but we only really hear about less than half of them.

I'll admit, there is a lot of prestige being a member of BYU, Pepperdine, UCLA or whoever else even if you're sitting on the bench. However, until some of these better players make it across the Rocky Mountains, I don't see where this discussion is going to change much.

Just my opinion......

[banthony2]

I didn't think you were trying to bash BYU, but a lot of the players on the bench and redshirting are LDS. So they are not only going to a top notch program, they are going to a great college environment for an LDS student be. It's true that there are LDS players elsewhere but I know many athletes here who got offers to play sports elsewhere but decided not to in order to go to BYU even if that meant not playing anymore.

[My2Sense]

There are many players at many of the programs on the 2nd team that would be starting at other programs, especially if there were more teams. I would like to see at least 4 more teams. There's plenty of talent to fill them and still maintain quality. IMO.

[BarcelonaBob]

Well...considering the men's volleyball doesn't even meet the participation requirements of the NCAA member institutions to even warrant a championship, all this talk about expanding to 8 or 16 teams is moot. Just be thankful that the NCAA continues to host a championship tournament for the sport.

This topic has been discussed ad nauseum, and always seems to pop up at this time of the year. Nothing has changed in 25 years, and nothing is likely to change anytime soon.

[benwhipdrofn]

Barcelona, but we like doing this )

banthony, you are right with it being a school based on religion too, that is a big reason why some go there, but I can't help but think that there would be some who want to play bad enough, that they would go elsewhere if they wouldn't be able to be part of the program.

[cougarize]

benwhipdrofn said:

Barcelona, but we like doing this )

banthony, you are right with it being a school based on religion too, that is a big reason why some go there, but I can't help but think that there would be some who want to play bad enough, that they would go elsewhere if they wouldn't be able to be part of the program.

BW: Players will go elsewhere and talent will be spread a little bit more equitably WHEN, and only WHEN men's volleyball programs can dole out more than 4.5 scholarships. But we all know that's not going to happen in our lifetimes. In fact, I think NCAA Men's VB will be eliminated before we see a significant bump in schollies.