PNW Volleyblog

The idea for this ranking is an extension of VolleyballMag's Mid-Major poll, but digging further. Teams like BYU, Northern Iowa, and Colorado State don't recruit like small-conference teams, so why should they be ranked with them? For the Small Conference 15, teams from the top 11 conferences in the country are ineligible - or in other words, only teams that are on page 2 of my schedule spreadsheet are allowed. That means no teams from any of: Pac-12 Big Ten Big 12 SEC West Coast ACC Big West American Athletic Mountain West Missouri Valley Big East The rankings are initially sorted based on the computer power ratings produced by MasseyRatings . I then a series of small adjustments based on an assortment of other things, including the  unofficial RPI . Games listed under "wins" and "losses" are just the most notable results from that team: wins against teams of approximately equal strength or better, and losses against teams of appro

There were only 28 matches played yesterday, and the only 3 top-20 teams in action all won their matches (#1 BYU, #12 Oregon, and #13 Washington). So why am I calling Thursday, September 20th a wild day? Upset frequency. TEN of the 28 matches resulted in a significant upset. We'll start with a pair in the Big Sky. Remember that team that pulled the massive upset of Florida earlier this year, Northern Arizona? Well, Idaho State (7-7, 1-0 Big Sky) passed the same test that the Gators couldn't, knocking out NAU (8-6, 0-1) on their home floor. Don't let the similar records fool you: NAU had played a mid-level non-conference schedule, even without the massive win over UF, while ISU's wins were mostly empty calories - their best win before yesterday was probably against a 5-8 Winthrop squad. Defending regular-season champ Sacramento State (5-10, 0-1) couldn't finish a 2-0, 18-15 set 3 lead at Montana, a team picked to finish 9th in the 11-team conference. Combined w

Author's note: I haven't posted on here in ages, but I'm planning to make it at least a semi-regular thing moving forward. Bracketology and bubble watch are both tentatively planned. I'm considering doing a weekly ranking for teams in smaller conference -- an even deeper look than VolleyballMag's excellent Mid-Major Poll offers, by eliminating more of the top conferences. Comments? Questions? Suggestions for what I should do next? Want to yell at me because I'm blatantly disrespecting your team? You can easily find me on Twitter: I am the human operating the VBScores fan account which I'm always happy to answer questions from, or you can also find me through my personal account, DawgoneCrazy , if you don't mind seeing lots of tweets about Seattle sports, especially the Huskies and the Mariners. Conference play is upon us -- in fact, the Metro Atlantic started conference play last weekend. 30 of the 31 remaining conferences will start this week,