Ricky Nelson’s 2017 preseason top 25 revisited

The good ol’ 2017 preseason top 25, which I published on my birthday for some reason. Anyway, mine was not terrible. The AVCA’s 2017 preseason poll had many pluses too.

Regional finalists are in bold. Teams not in the NCAA tournament are in red.

My 2017 preseason top 25 (AVCA preseason rank) 1 (1). Calvin — national semis 2 (11). Wittenberg — national runner-up 3 (4). Northwestern 4 (2). Emory — national quarters 5 (3). Washington (Mo.) 6 (24). Gustavus Adolphus — national quarters 7 (31). Chicago 8 (29). Illinois Wesleyan 9 (7). Claremont-Mudd-Scripps — national champion 10 (14). Trinity (Texas) 11 (12). Wisconsin-Whitewater 12 (15). Hope 13 (17). Millikin 14 (6). Cal Lutheran 15 (9). Colorado College 16 (8). Texas Dallas 17 (32). Randolph-Macon 18 (27). Ithaca 19 (44). Wisconsin-Eau Claire 20 (10). Mary Washington 21 (18). Wisconsin-La Crosse 22 (NR). Augsburg 23 (5). Southwestern 24 (23). Wisconsin-Oshkosh 25 (NR). Luther The next 15: Birmingham-Southern (NR); Carthage (NR); Christopher Newport (37); Eastern (16); Hendrix (20); Johns Hopkins (50); Johnson & Wales (33); Juniata (13); Ohio Northern (22); St. Thomas (36); Stevens (38); Stevenson (48); Swarthmore (43) — national quarters; Tufts (19); Wartburg (40).

In AVCA’s preseason top 40 but not my top 40: Elmhurst (21); La Verne (25); MIT (28); DePauw (26); Carnegie Mellon (30); Wisconsin-Stevens Point (34); Springfield (35); Brockport (39).

Not among my top 40 or AVCA’s preseason poll that included 50 teams: Babson; Berry.

This reminds me that I didn’t think the selected field included the correct teams. Additionally, the selected field was bracketed all weird. Were those two topics discussed?

-Ricky Nelson