Hmm.
I don't think anyone is saying the
poll is anything other than the collective opinions of
a bunch of players. It seems people complaining
about the poll are taking it more seriously than most
other people on the circuit.
The NCAA may have a
partial solution to the problem of having to put teams
you've never seen except maybe at Nationals on your
ballot.
Divisions II and III have Regional polls as
well as National polls, as teams rarely travel more
than 2-3 hours to a game except to the national
tournaments. Sound familiar? The Regional polls list the top
10 teams from a given region.
I would feel
infinitely more qualified to gauge the strengths and
weaknesses of teams from MD/DC/VA/DE/NJ/eastern PA (i.e. the
Mid-Atlantic) than I would be to decide who exactly is better,
Texas or Caltech.
Shawn Pickrell