I have little to add to what you say about the NSCAA polls beside to suggest that their national ranking should NOT be called a poll. Their polling happens regionally not nationally. When they throw all the regional #1’s into the national top eight and so on, they are creating a national ranking without polling on a national basis. Thus it’s a misnomer that the NSCAA calls it a national poll. It’s a national ranking, and a poor one because of the lack of national polling.

The D3soccer.com Top 25is a true national poll and thus has the potential to be much more accurate and relevant. As to the “oddities” of the D3soccer.com Top 25 poll, I agree that voters seem to actually under-react to new results which does create some real head-scratchers at times. On the surface of it, I don’t find the specific example you mentioned to be so odd because the evaluation of games needs to take into account much more than the mere score and two teams’ relative position needs to be based on their full seasons not just their isolated head-to-head result. However, I do think there have been plenty of other better examples of voter unwillingness to acknowledge what the latest week’s results indicate. Since there is (a) no real national exposure to allow voters to see most of the teams with their own eyes, (b) minimal inter-regional play, and (c) minimal head-to-head play among top teams, doing a national rankings requires a fair amount of guess-work and voters would do well to remember and acknowledge that as it would free them to be more responsive to new results and move teams more from week to week.

In closing, both rankings have flaws. However, the NSCAA flaws are inherent and thus fatal. On the other hand, the D3soccer.com flaws are not systematic but rather rest with the voters’ approach and thus the ranking can improve.