Readers' Polls - Results

The readers' poll results are in, and the rankings are in the right sidebar and below, with point totals. The results pretty much track conventional wisdom, with one or two exceptions.

V8

1. Wisconsin 1,242
2. Princeton 1,149
3. Stanford 967
4. Georgetown 912
5. Radcliffe 874
6. UCF 519
7. Bucknell 511
8. MIT 393
9. California 146
9. Ohio State 146

V4

1. Pittsburgh 221
2. Georgetown 154
3. Princeton 147
4. Wisconsin 111
5. MIT 83

In the eights, Wisconsin is seen as the top boat by a fairly wide margin over Princeton, although the Tigers are solidly in second place. Stanford, Radcliffe, and Georgetown make up the core of the top tier. UCF and Bucknell make up the next group, followed by MIT and then everyone else. This voting is a pretty good reflection of the current state of the lightweight world. Last year at this time, however, that top tier would probably have only been four boats, since Stanford was off. This year we could still have a Bucknell or UCF (or who knows?) close the gap substantially, much as they did in 2006.

One glaring omission from this top ten is LMU. I don't see how LMU can be left off when Cal and OSU are on, tied for 9th. LMU beat Cal by 19 seconds just last weekend. I think it's pretty clear that the Lions should be ranked somewhere around 8, 9, or 10. One could also make an argument for UMass to be higher since they beat MIT, but the idea was to vote for standings at the end of the season so it may be that voters think MIT will recover some speed. In LMU and Cal's case, however, they'll race at PCRC and then they're done. I guess it's possible that Cal could go faster, but I think LMU is pretty locked on.

Among the fours, Pitt is the clear leader, as you would expect. Wisconsin and MIT are a bit puzzling, however, since Wisconsin's only real race was at Knecht, where they failed to qualify for the final, losing to CMU as well as Pitt in the heat, while MIT has beaten Princeton. Again, however, the vote is for standings at year-end, so it's possible voters expect Wisco and Princeton to show up with strong fours at Sprints.

In the end, I think the gravest injustice was done to the LMU eight. No doubt most voters are from the east, which results in a bit of an East Coast bias. With the Easties rarely seeing a West Coast boat like LMU, I suppose it's somewhat predictable that the Lions might be missed in the voting.

Some poll statistics: 145 people voted in the V8 poll and 70 voted in the V4 poll. In each poll there were three votes that voted for one boat more than once, and those votes were removed. A few of the votes were clearly gags, or cast by incredibly misinformed people, but most votes seemed to be thoughtfully cast.