Oh boy, do we have a lot of updates. A vote switcher in NorCal now puts Cal ahead of Stanford. Carnegie Mellon adds a vote putting them into a tie with WVU (removing my vote puts them on the map). Murray State adds a vote putting them in a three-way tie with UK and UL in Kentucky (remove my UL vote and awarding it to UK to keep the state blue but hopefully someone breaks that).
North Texas is stolen away by UT-Arlington with just 4 votes but not due to unusually low turnout - 5 schools received multiple votes so there is plenty of time for that to change.
Now we are back in the Midwest with another state where I love just about every school.
v
[1] Michigan State - Tom Izzo and Mark Dantonio are two of the best and most respectable coaches in all of sports and the Italian names on such respectable men are just a bonus (unlike the cheating Italians two states to the south). Plus Saban was there historically. Even if they shouldn't be Big Ten, they still manage to play the underdog role well for a school with such consistent success.
[2] Michigan - The Big House is likely the best building in college sports and it's most definitely on my grad school shortlist no matter what I decide to go for. Ann Arbor is fabulous. Fab Five is kinda cool I suppose, but I don't typically go crazy for them in basketball as fun as the IU-UM rivalry was two years ago
[3] Central Michigan - Still got the LeFervour fever, years later
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[4] Michigan Tech - best of the hockey-only schools
[5] Lake Superior State
[6] Northern Michigan - Marquette! The college town of Atlas's dreams!
[7] Western Michigan
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[8] Eastern Michigan - I like them but the shade of green is way too bland to be up a tier
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[9] Ferris State
[10] Detroit - If only they had more consistency in basketball/a March upset, they'd be a prime Big East target. Catholic school in that big a city in the Midwest?! Ugh, just get better!
[11] Oakland
Even Oakland, I like some, but man, that's a very, very strong top 7 thanks to some help from the 4 hockey-only teams adding to the state's depth. Those might all be top 50 overall schools for me, and EMU's not too far behind that.
Past polls:
AL;
FL;
IL;
NorCal;
MD;
KY;
CO;
Upper New England;
American Southwest;
Backyard Brawl;
Middle America;
North TexasMichigan
Poll
