Horizon League Power Poll 11.5.12

Hello everyone, and welcome to PantherU.com, home of the 2012-13 Horizon League Power Poll as voted on by some of the greatest minds in the Horizon League. We decided that it wasn't enough for the media and coaches to get their say. Fans should have the chance to vote on weekly power rankings. We all know how our own respective fan bases see the entire conference, but how does it shake out when you take some of the smartest fans and media members from all over the conference to vote on their own? That's the question we will be asking each and every week from our voting panel. We have brought in media members, bloggers, student reporters and message board aficionados to build what we feel is a pretty strong poll reflecting the nine Horizon League teams.

From Cleveland State, we have Tom Mieskoski, who runs the blog CSU Vikings Hoops. Detroit's Reggie Hall of television station WXYZ out of the Motor City represents the Titans. Phear the Phoenix writer Brian Dickmann anchors our northern front in Green Bay. Loyola will be represented by Chicago hoops expert Chris Burrows of HorizonLeagueHoops.com. Our own Josh Griesbach of PantherU.com will be covering Milwaukee. UIC supporter Lee Kolodziej will fan the Flames for our panel. Hank Curry of the blog Section EE will be holding the flag for Valparaiso fans everywhere. Our southern base of Wright State will be covered by Charles Grove of WSU's student paper, the Guardian. And wrapping up our panel is Mitchell Friedman, a lifetime supporter of YSU basketball.

The rules are simple. Each voter has ranked their initial poll from one to nine based on their order of ranking. First place votes receive nine points, second place receives eight, all the way down to ninth place votes garnering one point. We then add each of these votes together for the totals, and once we have all ballots tallied up, we have our rankings. Individual ballots will not be shared unless the representative chooses to share it; I leave that choice to them.

I left it so voters could give tidbits on each of their picks to be distributed with the picks. This is not mandatory, so you'll notice some voters have elected not to comment on their picks in the first week. So, without further ado, your choices:

Order of finish (first place votes):

1. Valparaiso (8)
2. Detroit (1)
3. Green Bay
4. Cleveland State
5. Youngstown State
6. Milwaukee
7. Loyola
8. UIC
9. Wright State

Voting panel: Tom Mieskoski (CSU), Reggie Hall (Detroit), Brian Dickmann (Green Bay), Chris Burrows (Loyola), Josh Griesbach (Milwaukee), Lee Kolodziej (UIC), Hank Curry (Valpo), Charles Grove (WSU), Mitchell Friedman (YSU)

Fun facts:

- On the panel, no team finished in the same spot on every ballot. Most teams had at least three different places in the order; only Valpo and Green Bay finished with less than three places.

- Youngstown State was the hardest team to peg. They were voted as high as third and as low as seventh in the poll. That was also the highest dfference from highest to lowest vote.

- This is not a homer poll. Only one member of the voting panel placed his respective school higher on the list than every other voter.

- Only one voter pegged the entire order from one through nine as it finished in our poll.

Do you have something to say about these rankings? Is your team too high or too low? Let us know on the PantherU forums. You can also find comments from the voting panel on each of the teams in the rankings!