XC National Rankings WTF - Teams voting for themselves?

College Running D1

2 years ago 10/05/2021 1:59pm EDT

The receiving votes section of the National Rankings are proof that teams are voting for themselves. That should not be allowed.

UMass Lowell men receiving 4 votes??? While Stony Brook, who soundly beat Lowell at the same race, receives zero votes (and rightfully deserves zero votes).

Boston College women with 4 votes??? While Duke, who CRUSHED Boston College and #26 ranked Connecticut at Beantown is tied with Boston College with 4 votes?

I don't have time to dig deeper but I am sure there are more examples.

2 years ago 10/05/2021 2:56pm EDT

re: good call

It is 1 point for a 30th place vote, 2 for 29, ..., 30 for first. One coach from each region votes, so 11 voters. So a team with 4 points might have gotten 4 30th place votes or 1 27th place vote.

2 years ago 10/05/2021 3:22pm EDT

re: good call

Why is this something people even vote on? We have an entire championship season with a national championship race to determine rankings. Why is a vote based ranking system even necessary?

2 years ago 10/05/2021 3:49pm EDT

re: why is this a thing?

Wtf are you saying? Literally every sport has a ranking system. Its cool, you get to see how teams stack up against each other during the season. When there is a big race, its fun to say the #1, #3, #5 ranked teams in the country are competing. National Championship determines the ultimate rankings, but not sure why you are complaining about having in-season ones?

2 years ago 10/06/2021 11:29am EDT

re: poiuytrewq

poiuytrewq wrote:
It is 1 point for a 30th place vote, 2 for 29, ..., 30 for first. One coach from each region votes, so 11 voters. So a team with 4 points might have gotten 4 30th place votes or 1 27th place vote.

I find it hard to believe that 4 people would vote for such bad teams to be #30, especially ahead of teams that convincingly beat those teams head to head.

It's clear these coaches are voting their own teams as high as possible.

2 years ago 10/06/2021 12:21pm EDT

re: good call

The only women's program with a lower ranking or only received votes that has a coach on the executive committee is Georgia Tech. So unless you have a serious issue with that one then your theory isn't holding up real well for the VAST majority of teams you say don't deserve any votes.

2 years ago 10/06/2021 4:28pm EDT

re: good call

Why does it matter what a poll a couple weeks into the season says? My college coach would always vote for other teams over us. If I'm trying to get the most out of my team I'd rather them be ranked lower than they should.

1 year ago 09/09/2022 11:25am EDT

re: good call

good call wrote:
The receiving votes section of the National Rankings are proof that teams are voting for themselves. That should not be allowed.
UMass Lowell men receiving 4 votes??? While Stony Brook, who soundly beat Lowell at the same race, receives zero votes (and rightfully deserves zero votes).
Boston College women with 4 votes??? While Duke, who CRUSHED Boston College and #26 ranked Connecticut at Beantown is tied with Boston College with 4 votes?
I don't have time to dig deeper but I am sure there are more examples.

Plenty of people vote for UML outside of their own coaches. Mike Smith for example has mentioned that he votes for UML a lot in the polls. They are getting much better.

Also, Lowell had 2 of their top 5 runners drop out of this race in which SB "soundly" beat them. UML destroyed SB later in the fall when it mattered.

Reply Replying to

Username

Password

Leave the password field blank to post anonymously.

Post Preview

By posting you acknowledge that you have read and abide by our Terms and Conditions.

Remember me on this device.

XC National Rankings WTF - Teams voting for themselves?

Of General Interest

This thread has already been deleted.

You have been subscribed.