Please tell me why Air Force is ranked so high?

I was giving this some thought today. Air Force is getting all of these great rankings for beating the weak sisters of the poor. I would love to see what their strength of schedule is. To bad the PWR rankings aren't out yet.

Analysis:
Here is there schedule that Air Force has played to date (it is not impressive at all): Sacred Heart 2-6-2 (x2), Bemidji State Unveristy 2-6-0, American International 2-8-0 (x2), Bentley 3-4-1 (x2), Holy Cross 2-6-1 (x2), the strongest team on that list is Bemidji State University and they are having a down season as well, the rest on the Schedule are cup cakes.

Scores from 11-14-2008

Friday, November 14, 2008

Atlantic Hockey
Sacred Heart 4 at American Int'l 5 ot
Army 5 at RIT 3
Bentley 5 at Mercyhurst 2
Air Force 1 at Holy Cross 0 ot

Analysis
Air Force wins again, yippie! Air Force has yet to play and beat anyone from the Big four conferences and they will find out where they stand on 11/28 and 11/29 when they play DU and C.C..

CCHA
Northern Michigan 1 at Bowling Green 2 ot
Western Michigan 2 at Michigan 1
Ferris State 3 at Nebraska-Omaha 2
Lake Superior 3 at Notre Dame 3 ot: Notre Dame wins shootout
Miami 5 at Michigan State 1

Analysis
Michigan State University is not having a strong season so far and have lost three games in a row. Michigan is having a tough go at it as well after missing a couple of top defenders.

ECAC
Clarkson 1 at Harvard 5
Princeton 4 at Rensselaer 1
St. Lawrence 3 at Dartmouth 4 ot
Quinnipiac 6 at Union 3

Analysis
The ECAC is finally in full swing.

Hockey East
Boston College 5 at Merrimack 5 ot
New Hampshire 3 at Mass.-Lowell 8
Boston University 1 at Massachusetts 5
Northeastern 5 at Vermont 3
Maine 3 at Providence 2

Analysis
Maine is over .500 after a tough season last year. Boston University is beaten, we will see another number one next week. Northeastern stays hot.

WCHA
Wisconsin 3 at Minnesota-Duluth 3 ot
Colorado College 1 at Minnesota State 2
Denver 2 at St. Cloud State 4
Alaska-Anchorage 3 at North Dakota 2

Analysis
C.C. has lot 2 out of 3 games. Like LGM says while everyone talks about Richard Backman being the class of the WCHA but Mike Zacharias is pretty damn good. SCSU is now 1-3-0 in the WCHA as they win their first league game. There is some serious parity in the WCHA this season.

Non-Conference
Ohio State 4 vs. Robert Morris 0

Analysis
tOSU wins another game.

Duncan goal and Hextall penatly.

Watch this sweet goal by Duncan, at the end of the play you will see the check by Hextall that landed in the stands for the rest of the night. Typical call WCHA official Don "I make shit up as I go" Adam. Folks, there is no way in hell that was worthy of a five minute major. Especially, after all of the Checking From Behind calls that went uncalled by Don "I make shit up as I go" Adam on the Sioux players.
Props to BaderSioux for the video.

Hextall goal, check out the check that he finishes.

Jason Gregoire Goal wow, is that a sweet goal.

Are rankings based on last year's play?

I have seen a few comments where some college fans think that last years play doesn't have a hand in this season's early rankings. Respectfully, I believe that train of thought is flawed.

The argument: I do believe that last season's NCAA regional’s game between the Princeton Tigers and the Fighting Sioux is having an affect on Princeton’s ranking so far this season. During the NCAA Midwest Regional Semifinal game the Tigers out shot the Fighting Sioux 39-18, yet still lost the game 5-1. Also, the Princeton Tigers did not lose that many impact players during the off season. Combining these two known facts in my opinion is affecting the early season rankings. If this isn't the case why is Princeton ranked as the #8 team in the country? The Tigers haven't played and beat anyone of significance. To say the Tigers are one of the best teams in the country is ridiculous. The Tigers might not even be the best team in their league. One could make the argument for the Clarkson based on actual play against a top opponent.

To further my argument I will use UAA as an example. UAA has been picked to finish 10th in most early season WCHA polls/rankings and now is sitting at 5-2-1 (2-1-1 WCHA) and not one hockey pundit picked them to finish higher than 9th. To say that this ranking isn't based on last years play is silly. We sure as hell didn't roll the dice or spine the wheel to predict their finish in the WCHA standings.

Princeton

How they finished: Princeton had a strong run to the finish, capped by its second ECAC tournament championship. That meant, obviously, its second NCAA tournament appearance as well. The Tigers ran into some bad luck early, hung with North Dakota for a while, but ultimately fell. That did nothing, however, to take away from Princeton's accomplishment, finally coming back from the depths and returning to the type of competitive level it enjoyed in the latter half of Don Cahoon's run as coach in the late '90s.

Changes: The Tigers only lost 25 points from the forwards that graduated, 13 of those from Rhodes Scholar winner Landis Stankievech.

Strengths: The Tigers return most everyone, including the entire top line intact, of Hobey finalist Lee Jubinville, Brett Wilson and Cam MacIntyre. The latter made the big leap last year from 13 to 31 points. The defense is experienced with Tyler Fedun, Cam Ritchie and Jody Pederson. And goalie Zane Kalemba, who emerged last season as a true No. 1, is back and is only a junior.

Air Force Team of the Week.

Hum, I saw this article on College Hockey News While an 8-0-0 start is nothing to sneeze at, look who they have beat. Not a schedule that strikes fear in anyone. The only team on that schedule that is considered a decent team is Bemidji State, and they are having a down season.

What do you think?