Muddling through the Top 25

As he walked off the field Saturday afternoon his team’s 22-21 victory a South Dakota State player said -- sort of to the surrounding fans and teammates, but really to no one in particular -- “No way (UC Davis) is the No. 16 team in the country.” It’s a silly statement to make for two reasons. The first is by denigrating the opponent, he was really trashing his own team's victory. And second, how does he know? Not even the most expert pollster could look at a team and say, “Oh, that’s the 16th best team in the country.” And if you think you can, you’re just being contrarian for the sake of it. And good for you. We definitely need more contrarianism in the world.

UC Davis coach Bob Biggs said today on the Great West conference call that his team’s 4-4 record doesn’t represent how good it actually is. Given the team's talent, and the fact two of its losses are to top 10 teams, he can make a convincing case. This isn’t the NFL where, as Bill Parcells says, you are what your record says you are. In college, schools set their own slates. They have the ability to challenge themselves or they design a schedule for success (at least out of conference). In truth, UCD probably went too far in testing itself, although it beats the alternative. Here’s how I voted the Sports Network’s Top 25 poll. You may call me a homer for leaving Davis in if you like, but I’m simply not prepared to believe that non-scholarship San Diego belongs above the Aggies on this list.

1. Appalachian St.; 2. Montana; 3. NDSU; 4. Umass; 5. James Madison; 6. Youngstown; 7. Cal Poly; 8. Illinois St; 9. New Hampshire; 10. Tenn-Martin; 11. Northern Iowa; 12. Southern Illinois; 13. Richmond; 14. Furman; 15. Hampton; 16. Eastern Ill.; 17. Portland St.; 18. Coastal Carolina; 19. Montana St.; 20. Towson; 21. South Dakota St.; 22. UCD; 23. Charleston Southern; 24. San Diego; 25. Harvard.

Coming up tomorrow in the print edition: Biggs politely lights up San Diego’s Jim Harbaugh, the nuptials of Davis High’s field hockey coach and Pacific coach Bob Thomason reflecting on his team’s recent success.