Any last minute predictions to throw out there? It has been a rocky ranking period.

there is a lot to consider. Im mainly looking at the ranking as where they were in the past ranking and now at "what have you done for me lately". First off the only teams that I think are safe to stay in the top 10 are teams ranked #1-6 from the last ranking. Those are:

1. Davenport
2. Grand Valley
3. Mich St.
4. DePaul
5. Lindenwood
6. St. Thomas

Now for the rest.

#7 Michigan: They are on a 10 game losing streak right now I believe?!? I understand you're playing tough competition but if you can't even pull out a tie in a game, you do not deserve to be ranked. I assume they will get some votes in around #14.

#8 Iowa: They really hurt themselves lately as well. A really questionable split w/ Northern Michigan and now a split w/ SIUE who is underrated but still a team they should've swept. I believe they'll slip out of the top 10 to around #11 or 12

#9: Illinois: These guys are in a heap of trouble. They've been getting straight up beat downs their last couple of games. I don't see how they rebound after losing 3 to UNLV?!? I see them dropping out of the top 15 altogether possibly

#10 Missouri St.: Talk about an up-and-down team. They seem like they never will just put away the critics and take care of business. They win some decent games but haven't been able to pull off the upset when they been given many chances this year. They also play way to many sub-par teams close when they should blow them out. I believe they fall barely back to #11

#11 Robert Morris: They needed to at least split w/ Lindenwood to solidify a good ranking but got swept. They do however come back and sweep Illinois St. With what everyone else has done lately they still have shown enough to move up possibly as high as #7 or #8

#12 Central Michigan: They took care of business against Mo St. However thats really all. It really hurt to get waxed by GVSU 11-2. If they would have stayed competitive against them it would've helped. They always get sympathy votes though b/c they are from up north, so it wouldn't surprise me to see them slip in the top 10. But I don't think they deserve it

#13 Illinois St: Split w/ SLUH and swept by Robert Morris. Another team that had an opportunity to move up but shot themselves in the foot. It did help that they split w/ DePaul at the end of last semester but that is old news and really their only signature win of the year. I believe they fall back to around #15

#14 Ferris St: Is it too little too late? I don't think so. They have been pretty hot as of late. I don't think they deserve to crack the top 10 this ranking but who knows with those voters from the north. They won and tied with Mo St. and split with Lindenwood. If they get some more big wins before the last ranking they should move into the mix

#15 Minnesota: This team has a lot going for them. A sweep of St. Thomas at the end of last semester and now a split with DePaul. With what everyone else in front of them in the rankings has done lately, I don't understand how you can count them out. I think they crack the top 10

Other teams of note:

Kansas: Not really much here. Has been a competitive team all year but not really anything impressive as of late

Northern Michigan: Split with Iowa, but if you look at their schedule they have just been playing a bunch of chump teams. I don't think that is enough to get you ranked but don't be surprised to seem jump into the top 15. They do however have a chance to make some more noise if they get some wins against Minnesota this weekend

Wisconsin-Platteville: Seriously? Who was smokin crack when they gave these guys a vote?!?

SIUE: Whoever did the scheduling for this team is an idiot. This team is definitely worthy of being ranked in the top 15 but playing only 11 games in the 1st semester isn't gonna help you unless you go undefeated. They have helped themselves by playing well of late though and I could see them at least getting votes if not get into the top 15.

Missouri: This team has had a weird season as well and would help themselves if they would post their scores and update their website from 10 years ago. They have done pretty well as of late though beating teams that they should beat (i.e. Northern Illinois, RMC-Springfield, and Eastern) and really helped themselves by splitting two close games against #5 Lindenwood. They should slip into the top 15 with all the havoc that has happened to the teams ranked #7-#15 and have ample opportunity to slip into the top 10 if they can pull off wins against Illinois St. and Missouri St. the next two weekends.

With all this said, good luck to those poor souls who have to sort through this mess and actually rank these teams!

a win and a tie do not constitute a split.

1-6 Seems to be pretty well agreed upon

1)Davenport
2)GVSU
3)Michigan State
4)DePaul
5)Lindenwood
6)St. Thomas

From here on out you could make a case for about 11 schools to fill out the last 9 spots, however my 7-10 would look like this:

7)Iowa - In their last 4, they went 2-1-1 vs. unranked opponents, but no one has done a thing to pass them up or put them into the lower 8-12 seeds. They are currently 8-4 vs. D2 ranked opponents

8)Central Michigan - currently a .500 club, standing 7-8 vs. d2 ranked opponents. A strong schedule, and some big wins put them in this spot.

9) Here's your toss up, Ferris State or Missouri State or RMC-Maroon. RMC-M has had an up and down year, have probably the strongest schedule for a team outside of the GMHL. They are currently 6-10-1 vs. D2 ranked teams, and their sweep of Michigan will knock U of M out of the top 10.

10) Ferris plays the toughest schedule among teams outside of the top 6. They have done something no other team has, beating #1 Davenport at the end of last semester. That being said, they are also coming off of being swept, 1 of which was a 11-3 blowout from GVSU. Currently 5-10-1 vs D2 ranked opponents.

11) Missouri State has had its ups and downs as well, currently 14-10-2 vs D2 teams, yet 4-10-2 vs ranked D2 opponents. Looking at the teams who currently sit around them in the rankings, a loss and a tie to #14 Ferris, Sweep of #13 ISU, Loss to #12 CMU, a win and a tie vs. #11 RMC-Maroon, and swept by #8 Iowa.

- Also note that, Mo State has the weakest remaining schedule going into the final ranking period, as they dont have any other ranked games scheduled, unless SIUE gets ranked.

• RMC-M will play #4 DePaul, Northern Michigan, (SE) #2 FGCU, and #5 Lindenwood
  
• Ferris will play #12 Wright State, #8 Ohio State, and #12 Central Michigan
  
• Mo State fills out the rest of their conference schedule playing SIUE, Mizzou, and Kansas (which wasn't on the ACHA site...)
  

12) Michigan - Its tough to leave this team out of the top 15 with the wins they have, unfortunately they have done nothing to give anyone any reason to keep them in the top 10. Currently on a 10 game losing streak, the Maize and Blue are 7-10 against ranked opponents, the best record in my mockup for teams outside of the top 10. However 8 of those 10 have come in their last 10 D2 games, add to the fact that their coach was recently DQ'ed for physical abuse of an official, no regionals for you.

13-15) You can play the transverse property comparative scoring game with Minnesota, ISU, SIUE.

• Minnesota was swept by Iowa, SIUE lost and tied them, ISU will play Iowa later.
  
• Both Minnesota and ISU split with DePaul, SIUE doesnt face them this year.
  
• Of the 3 teams, SIUE is the only one to sweep Kansas, ISU split, and Minnesota was swept.
  
• SIUE and ISU split with each other, 8-4 SIUE win, and a 7-6 ISU win (leading for only 7 seconds) in Bloomington.
  
• ISU split with EIU and NIU, SIUE has swept EIU and will play NIU to end the season
  
• ISU split with St. Thomas, Minnesota swept them, SIUE doesn't play them.
  
• ISU split with SLU, who beat SIUE twice. SLU wont play Minnesota this season as they are not an MACHA team or D1.
  

So I would put
13)SIUE - 4-5-1 vs ranked opponents
14)Minnesota - 3-6-1 vs. ranked opponents
15)ISU - 3-7 vs. ranked opponents

The numbers are as accurate as I could get them, if teams didn't report scores, they weren't reflected in the prediction.

Good luck to all this week.

CKich30

What is the infatuation with St. Thomas? If you split with ISU...the win was in OT...you do not deserve to be in the top ten. Same goes for RMC-Maroon...they were dominated by Illinois.

Nice to read some really well thought out agruements on this thread. Very refreshing. Here are my two cents. This season there is so much parity within MACHA and among the top 15 of the ACHA Central Region, that I beleive you need to take a different approach. Typically, people really get hung up on the head to head match-ups and give this a ton of weight. That was fine early on, but now it does not work. That approach assumes that teams are consistent machines which produce predictable outcomes. They are not. Teams are living changing organisms, affected by injures, goalie differernces, transfers, and consistent effort and focus throughout the season. At this point, I beleive you need to look at a team's body of work. Look at the overall record and the relative strength of schedule. That is where you should start. From there, look at head to head to fine tune the close calls. Overall, it is the complete season that should be focused on for ranking with so many teams playing so close together. There should be no remorse for this. It has been one of the best seasons in years with so many quality teams facing eachother, playing tough schedules and produces a lot of close games and split series.

Ive never understood the whole St.Thomas thing...their 5-5-1 vs. ranked opponents. Unfortunately that #6 spot is where they will end up though.