You should always remember and learn from your failures. And in terms of picking the WCHA standings, I’ve had plenty of failures. The good thing (for me, anyway) is that I’m usually not alone.
In the media poll I organized before this season for The Capital Times, I was one of 22 voters to pick Colorado College to defend its regular season championship. Only three picked North Dakota for the title, and they get bragging rights — if they choose to identify themselves. I said I wouldn’t reveal the votes but individuals had the right to do so on their own.
There are a couple other noteworthy items from the aggregate poll results, compared to the actual standings:
** Three of the 25 voters correctly picked North Dakota as the champion, and five voters correctly picked the pool of teams finishing in the top five (although no one had the correct order). But no one was able to do both.
** The three first-place votes given to North Dakota were balanced by three low votes — two people picked the Sioux for sixth, and another chose them for fifth.
** Four voters correctly picked the top four teams, but not in order. No one picked the top three teams in their top three.
Here are the final standings, including the media poll picks and how I thought the teams would finish:
1. North Dakota (media 2nd, me 2nd)
2. Denver (media 3rd, me 3rd)
tie-3. Wisconsin (media tie-4th, me 4th)
tie-3. Colorado College (media 1st, me 1st)
5. Minnesota (media tie-4th, me 7th)
6. St. Cloud State (media 6th, me 6th)
7. Minnesota-Duluth (media 8th, me 8th)
8. Minnesota State (media 7th, me 5th)
9. Alaska-Anchorage (media 10th, me 9th)
10. Michigan Tech (media 9th, me 10th)
