If URI keeps winning for, say, two or three weeks and they gets safely inside the top-25 (i.e., #18 or #19), they may be able to withstand one loss without dropping out of the polls. But if they lose this week or next week, they'll be out and it probably doesn't matter what they do the rest of the way - they won't get back in.PlayMikeMotenMore wrote:Two things to remember...rjsuperfly66 wrote:I'm equally surprised about Florida -- a week ago they lost to a bad Ole Miss team ... this week they beat a mid-level tournament team at home, and then went to Kentucky and won, but Kentucky they AP just said was not good enough to be in the Top 25. Yet Florida goes from 1 vote last week to 366 votes this week.reef wrote:I'm sorry but St Marys going from well unranked to #16 in the country is an absolute travesty. Anybody else agree ??
1) The rule of recency: when given a number of data points, people remember things that are most recent.
2) The power of national TV: people see St. Mary's go to Gonzaga and win. People see Florida go to UK (a tough place to win at regardless of how well UK is playing) and win.
URI will start getting some games on NBCSN and ESPN2 here in the coming weeks. Keep winning and they'll continue to rise up the polls. However, keep in mind that if they lay an egg in front of everyone, say bye-bye to the ranking. Established programs can lose some games and keep their ranking. But not programs on the fringe of "big time."
Of course, they don't have to do anything really special the next couple weeks to move up - the way the polls work, if you're in and you win, you'll jump over teams that lose. Some of these teams toward the back end of the top-25 that play in tough conferences will inevitably lose.