College Hockey:
Defending champion Boston College top pick in preseason men’s poll

USCHO Staff Report • Oct. 1, 2012

With 35 first-place votes, defending national champion Boston College is the top choice in the USCHO.com Division I Preseason Poll.

No. 2 Minnesota (12) and third-ranked Michigan (three) tallied the other first-place votes.

North Dakota and Union round out the top five.

Cornell, Massachusetts-Lowell, Denver, Miami and Western Michigan complete the top 10 teams, in that order.

Last season’s Frozen Four runner-up, Ferris State, is slotted 11th in the poll, followed by Minnesota-Duluth, Boston University, Notre Dame and Maine.

Michigan State starts the year 16th, Harvard sits at No. 17, Wisconsin in the 18th spot, Air Force 19th and Colorado College coming in at No. 20.

The USCHO.com Division I Men’s Poll consists of 50 voters, including 28 coaches from the Division I conferences and 22 beat writers and sports professionals from across the country.

The following is a self-policing forum for discussing views on this story. Comments that are derogatory, make personal attacks, are abusive, or contain profanity or racism will be removed at our discretion. USCHO.com is not responsible for comments posted by users. Please report any inappropriate or offensive comments by clicking the “Flag” link next to that comment in order to alert the moderator.

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http://twitter.com/pucknut9 Kegs
Looky there. 6 out of 8 future NCHC teams in the top 20.
- lakes19
  4 out of 6 for the Big 10…. What was the clown saying about how bad the NCHC and Big Ten would be?
  I think the new WCHA next year is going to sink fast……
  - Fan Man
    Lets hope it doesn’t for college hockey sake but yes I think the clown should read this article before his 900 word rant continues on…….
deucetard
looky there BC #1, still #1
- BD
  Deservedly, but things can change….
- ChrisDroid
  I’m the first to say “anyone but BC.” But damn that 2012 team could have beaten most NHL teams.
Bogdan
Union @ 5. Love it! Go UUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!
18secondsuntilsunrise
Sorry, but IMHO, preseason polls are a complete waste of time. Then again, maybe I should bookmark this article so that I can compare this list with the end-of-season rankings. That just might be interesting.
- deucetard
  of course they are
FansAgainstNCHC
Yes there might be six NCHC teams in the top twenty because the NCHC coaches paid to have their teams ranked high. Heck if I paid for the nWCHA teams they would have ranked high too.
I cant wait til WMU and Miami with the first NCHC season. Denver and North Dakota will regret asking them in as they win the league. It will be a joke as ND and Denver go down the tubes in the new league. Andy Murray going to put the ex WCHA teams to shame.
This poll is out of whack. NCHC teams dont belong in any polls. As those teams are a disgrace to college hockey.
- lakes19
  Your hate and very poor comments are a disgrace!
  Everyone is sad to see the WCHA fall apart. But try to comment with facts and reality, not because your mad your team is left behind.
  - No Class Hockey Conference
    I am glad my teams have nothing do to with throw together league of the NCHC. The WCHA could have survived with ten teams after Minnesota and Wisconsin left for the Big ten. In comparision how come Hockey East is expanding to twelve and even adding Vermont who had a big three wins last season, and they also will be adding an AHA team UCONN.
    But the well established WCHA has a few members of the longest and most storied league decide to bolt after expanding to twelve teams similar to Hockey East who has been dominate of lately. They bolted to form a charter member league of five former WCHA teams and one CCHA team and not knowing who the leader of this league at the time and what other members were going to join the NCHC. The NCHC dismantled a well established WCHA to form a unproven league the NCHC. By adding unproven college hockey markets in Oxford and Kalmazoo.
    My teams are smart they by staying in the WCHA. It is an established league recognized by many NHL scouts and a MacNaughton Cup that has been awarded in the hockey world since 1913.
    The nWCHA will be made up of many hard working kids that arent hand fed like the North Dakota kids who come in with high expectations and if these kids dont meet these expectations they fail as the Captains Hazing party that recently took place.
    The only teams left behind are North Dakota, Denver, Colorado College, St Cloud, and Minnesota Duluth. The cowards walked out on the WCHA.
    - BD
      Coulda, shoulda, woulda….
      Without Minnesota in the WCHA there was no point for North Dakota to hang around.
      So blame the Big Tenners…..
      - No Class Hockey Conference
        Hockey East had an opening for North Dakota.
        But UCONN took the spot from UND.
        Hockey East would have fit the UND budget so they could have emptied the bank account.
      - B.D.
        What?
        Homeboy, THINK before you begin typing.
Nobody Cares Hockey Conference
Where is Bowling Green? Where is UAA? Where is Alaska? Where is UAH Chargers?
These polls are a joke? I wouldnt rank all those NCHC teams that high. The nWCHA teams are going to win the CCHA and WCHA. The lame ducks are going to the NCHC. At least Notre Dame was smart to go to Hockey East. And according to Miami Red Hawk blogs the fans wish they would have also taken the trip to Hockey East instead of NCHC for closeness to Ohio and better competition.
The Nobody Cares Hockey Conference remnds me of the old WHA. What happen to the old WHA? It combined with NHL. That is what is going to happen to the NCHC it isnt going to compete with nWCHA. Why?
1 The lockout is going to hurt hockey.
2. Eastern fans arent going to be interested Denver, Omaha, and Grand Forks.
3 Nobody wants to watch teams from Oxford, Duluth, and Kalmazoo. On tv to top it off.
4 Everything is centered out of Denver. Most teams are on the Western time zone. Which means out East games on at prime time of 10pm.
5 A risk of a league the NCHC is? Lack of planning, lack of leader right from the start, and location, location and location which the league lacks bad locations for a National Conference.
- EliBlue
  Okay, you definitely hate the new conference, but as an ECAC fan, first of all, I’d love to see more hockey from the other conferences. One of the shames of being an Ivy fan (Yale) is the limit on number of games, so I don’t get much of a chance to see the western teams. I wish my cable system had more western games. Second, I don’t see how the lockout hurts hockey. Now, with the minors flooded with kids on entry level contracts and unable to go to Europe, there was probably a lower level of kids leaving college sooner for the minors or the NHL if they could make it. I think it gives the scouts a lot more time to evaluate college hockey players and maybe they’ll see some kids they would have missed if the season was underway and they were doing advanced scouting on other NHL teams. And in general, this is why I love college hockey — because it’s not the NHL and because at this level, the rivalries really matter. I grew up on Edmonton-Calgary in the 80s, Rangers-Islanders, Montreal-Quebec. The college rivalries are better than most NHL rivalries
  - NotForTheNCHC
    The college hockey rivalries will be dead. Many teams have played each other for fourty and sixty years that will not play each other ever again thanks for the demise of the CCHA and the establishment of the NCHC.
    College hockey rivaliries in midwest and west wil die.
    As we can watch WMU vs UMD or ND vs Miami or UNO vs St Cloud are you get excited Im not.
    - BD
      Okay, blame the big tenners for that….
- PuckU
  Where is Bowling Green? You lost all credibility with your first sentence.
- lakes19
  Your simply a joke and cry baby. The New WCHA couldn’t even come up with a new name of it’s own…. That is a shame in its own right….
  There is no WCHA after this year, just a bunch of teams that are lower tiered and wanting name recogination to survive!
  - No Class Hockey Conference
    The nWCHA doesnt need a new name. With one charter member of the WCHA MTU Huskies and one charter member of CCHA the Bowling Green Falcons. Teams in the nWCHA have a richer history then the wana be’s of the NCHC. Both of teams above have more wins, conference championships, and National Championships then UNO, St Cloud, WMU and Miami .combined. Talk about no history or tradition the NCHC lacks all of the above.
    How many National Championships does UNO have?
    Zero
    How many does NC does St Cloud have? Zero
    How many NC does WMU have? Zero
    How many does MIami Have? Zero
    How many does CC have? Two
    How Many does UMD have? one
    Now for the nWCHA?
    MTU Huskies NC have? Three
    NMU Wildcats NC have? One
    LSSU Lakeres NC have? Three
    Bowling Green NC have? One
    I see a pattern rich tradition teams in the nWCHA and NCHC teams with a lot of teams with zero National Championships and absolutely no tradition.
    - BD
      When was the last time those much vaunted teams you list WON the applicable trophies?
      Ancient history is good only for the books….
      - FansAgainstNCHC
        Those teams won the National Titles way before the CC Tigers, UNO Mavericks, St Cloud Huskies, WMU Broncos, and Miami Red Hawks.
        So of the five teams in the NCHC you have four teams with no National Championships and one that hasnt won one since the 1950′s.
        LSSU won three National Championsips in the 1990′s and NMU WIldcats won in 1991. So in the modern era five NCHC teams have zero championships and the nWCHA has four Natioanal Championships.
        So teams in the NCHC are fooling themselves as they have teams with empty shelves. The nWCHA has four teams with Seven National Championships.
      - B.D.
        You made my point.
        The Samarians and Carthagenians USED to be military super-powers (About when Tech was good) but do you really wanna stack them up against the US 1st Armored?
        The simple truth is that the teams left behind in the nWCHA were not prepared to commit the resources to participate in a premiere league.
Eagles
Wow bc owns you

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