NCAA Division I Men -- 2002 Preseason Rankings August 22, 2001 2001 record indicated below Rank School W-L-T 1 Indiana University 18-4-1 2 Stanford University 19-2-1 3 St. John's University 17-3-3 4 University of North Carolina 21-4-0 5 University of Virginia 17-2-1 6 University of Connecticut 15-5-2 7 Rutgers University 15-7-3 8 Southern Methodist University 21-1-0 9 Clemson University 19-5-0 10 University of Maryland 11-9-1 11 Saint Louis University 18-2-0 12 University of Washington 13-6-0 13 UCLA 12-7-4 14 Fairleigh Dickinson University 17-7-0 15 University of Alabama-Birmingham 15-6-0 16 University of South Carolina 12-5-2 17 Penn State University 14-5-1 18 Boston College 19 Creighton University 20 University of Kentucky 14-6-1 21 Furman University 22 Loyola College (Md.) 23 Syracuse University 24 University of San Diego 12-4-1 24 Wake Forest University 13-6-2
Not a bad list. Syracuse is a stretch, as is Kentucky. No Ivy's though or Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which is good.
Let the banter begin, the Division 1 rankings are finally up. I personally think that Maryland is ranked kinda high at #10. I seem to remember that the Terps were ranked highly last year too and then fell out of the rankings. Don't get me wrong, I am a Terp fan, but until I see Abe Thompson fully healthy and believe that the backline will hold together, I think #10 is too high. Penn State at #17 might be generous too. There's way too many question marks, such as who will supply the ball to Chad Severs. The defense should be very good, but I think scoring will be a problem. If only the Terps and Nittany Lions could fuse into one team... I think Penn State will struggle in the Maryland/FILA Classic before rebounding in Big Ten play. Though I don't think Barry Gorman's squad will finish give Indiana a run for their money. I'm a bit surprised that American wasn't ranked considering how these rankings are often overly based on last year. Plus playing in a weaker conference should let AU rack up some wins. American will come to Happy Valley to play PSU and Ohio State this September in the Nike/PSU Classic. The Big East has 5 ranked teams, that's way too many. I'm not a believer that Boston College is that good, and Syracuse sucked bad last year, they got waxed 5-0 by PSU in 2001! I don't know much about Rutgers either but #7 seems high.
Gotta agree with you there. If Rutgers is 7, Creighton is far too low. Rutgers opens up against IU in a match that IU never loses, then follows up against an athletic Butler squad comprised almost entirely of 3 year starters. BC and Syracuse shouldn't be in the top 25, over an American or South Florida.
Big East Love the Rutgers ranking! They finished last year ranked at #9 and they return a quality squad. I could see dropping out Syracuse, but you have to add back in Notre Dame. ND is picked by the Big East coaches to finish third and they may be better than that.
Every time I go on the NSCAA web site, the link doesn't work for the D1 rankings. where did you guys find them?
That'll teach you! TA, it must be a conspiracy against you for badmouthing them last night on another thread!
Notre Dame should definitely be in there. as far as big east they are far ahead of syracuse and bc... however bc might belong. teams like seton hall and georgetown can also make a run for those rankings. the nscaa rankings never really seem to be as accurate as the other ones. I wouldn't put much into them.
Hopefully UAB's lame preseason loss to a small school will get some of the wrenches out of the works before the games start counting in the rankings. If not, we will see you guys in the top 25 in another year.