Poll-ese!

I don't believe in polls on principle, but I always seem to read them.

The first thing that comes to my mind is: How the hell do these so-called experts (sports writers) know who the best team lis in the country, whatever the sport?

Yes, I just took a crack at a whole profession, which would just happen to be the one I am engaged in here at The Crimson.

I'll also admit that I make judgments on many teams, but I don't believe that they should be the basis for a team making a bowl game in football or the NCAA tournament in other sports.

Sure, I've seen a lot of college hockey and could probably give you a general idea of where the 12 ECAC teams will finish (see tomorrow's hockey pullout), but you shouldn't take these rankings at face value.

Most of the people who make a poll have seen very few teams play, so they really know about as much as you do on who's good and who's not. (Not that I'm advocating a national vote on who should be number one.)

Anyway, what really got my ire was three separate polls taken over the past week in football, women's soccer and men's hockey.

1. Football

Let's see--Penn State is ranked first in the nation and goes on to absolutely humiliate then 20th-ranked Ohio State, 63-14, but these morons who make up the AP poll dropped the team to number two in the nation.

Huh? You beat a top-20 team by half a century and suddenly you're not as good as you were a week ago?

Sure, Nebraska thumped former number-two Colorado, but the Cornhuskers should only have moved up to the number-two spot. Yes, their win was impressive, but that was child's play compared to the Nittany Lion's effort.

This method of picking the top team is made more horrible by the fact that there isn't a college football playoff. We have those wonderful bowl games like the Poulan Weed-Eater Independence Bowl or the John Hancock Bowl (formerly the Sun Bowl) and many others, none of which would produce a national championship game if Penn State and Nebraska remain undefeated.

Mo, Larry, Curly and the rest of the pollsters will decide who's number one.

2. Women's Soccer

All right, this one doesn't get the attention that football does, but it still made me angry to see how the Harvard women's soccer team was disrespected.

Yes, the team lost to .500 Providence a week ago last Wednesday, but it then went on to upset Dartmouth, the 11th-ranked team in the nation.

So those voters decided to keep the Big Green ahead of the Crimson in the Northeast rankings, completely ignoring the weekend's result--a 2-1 Harvard victory. Dartmouth is standing in at number-four, while Harvard is in the sixth spot.

This is a precarious situation, because Harvard won't necessarily make the NCAA tournament even if it defeats Brown, the number three in the Northesat, for the Ivy title this Saturday.

The NCAA tournament is based on rankings, and those rankings are either completely based upon, or highly influenced by, polls.

3. Men's Hockey

Let's see--Harvard hasn't even played a game this year, but it is playing the sixth-best hockey in the nation, according to this week's poll.

Boston University is number one even though the Terriers are only 1-0-1, while those Wolverines in Michigan really look like a solid pick at number eight at 2-2-0 after losing to lowly Ferris State of the CCHA.

Give us a break, sports writers.

Don't insult us with your lack of knowledge. Just admit that you don't know everything that's going on and let the teams play.