A fascinating dispersal of votes in the D-I poll, I must say. Washington are indeed the new #1 team, with 38 of the 60 first-place votes. The other 22? Scattered like buckshot.
Twelve went to #2 USC. Penn State fell a little further than I expected they would, down to #5, but they still got one first-place vote. Two each went to #3 Florida and #4 Texas, and three to the Hawaii Wahine at #6. Down at #9, for Michigan State, is where we find the last two.
And I think they're all defensible votes. None of those are ridiculous aberrations. All right, Sparty is a biiiiiit of a stretch for the very top line, but top ten is absolutely warranted and I thought hard about putting them in the top five in my rankings. Bottom line, there is no obvious, clear-cut #1 team in the nation right now, especially if you eschew the "who lost least recently" way of looking at it (which you should).
The actual poll looks pretty similarly to my own rankings, when you take into account when I said things like "no way they'll be this high/this low in the real poll." Wisconsin climb back into the rankings, at #23, displacing B1G rivals Illinois. That's the only change in composition from last week.
You can view the complete poll here.
I haven't really done much in the way of D-II coverage so far this season, but I do like to keep tabs on it. The conquering heroes Concordia-St. Paul are back on top of the mountain, getting 44 of the 48 first-place votes. #1 faced #2 this past week, with the Golden Bears playing host to the previously undefeated Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs. They prevailed in a five-set thriller to take back the top line. Minnesota-Duluth did still get one first-place vote, and Central Missouri at #4 got the other three. Last year's national runners-up, the Tampa Spartans, check in at #3.
My WWU Vikings have entered single digits, and I've got to say I really didn't know if that was gonna happen this year. We're sitting at #9, with the home opener this weekend. I have to work when it's going on, which pisses me off to no end, but I'll be there for Saturday's match. Saturday should be a better match anyway, as it's the rivalry game with the hated Central Washington Wildcats. They were themselves ranked at one point, though they've fallen on hard times of late (Poor babies). They always bring it for the trip north, and we always have it for 'em.
It's mostly pretty familiar names filling out the poll. One new team enters this week, Armstrong Atlantic State at #25. They displace Palm Beach Atlantic, who held that same rank a week ago. The Pirates are 11-0, one of only two undefeated teams in the poll (Central Missouri are the other), so it's nice to see that get rewarded.
You can view the complete D-II poll here.
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