Early poll results are in!

Will McCain and Obama exchange long protein strings today?

(Probably would have been cooler if I’d waited until today to unveil the results of the first five polls, too. Oh well.)

Recently got my hands on the USA Today Sports Weekly college basketball preview. Don’t be fooled by it, though: The capsules, like a whole lot of Sports Weekly, are produced by The Sports Xchange. Why I’m annoyed by Sports Weekly’s reliance on wire copy is a blog topic for another time, I suppose.

And since Nate Silver was apparently a little busy (that’s for my buddy Elise), I took the time to crunch the numbers myself. Fifteen seconds later, I came up with this! (In interest of increasing the suspense, I’ll actually post the TSX predictions second)

1.) VCU (6) 6
2.) Old Dominion 21
3.) George Mason 22
4.) Northeastern 23
5.) Delaware 30
6.) Georgia State 40
7.) Hofstra 41
8.) James Madison 48
9.) William & Mary 54
10.) UNC-Wilmington 57
11.) Towson 60
12.) Drexel 66
First-place votes in parenthesis
Polls compiled thus far: CAA, Blue Ribbon, Sporting News, Lindy’s, Athlon, The Sports Xchange

And the TSX poll:

1.) VCU
2.) George Mason
3.) Old Dominion
4.) Hofstra
5.) Delaware
6.) Northeastern
7.) Georgia State
8.) William & Mary
9.) James Madison
10.) Towson
11.) UNC-Wilmington
12.) Drexel

A few quick notes on the TSX rankings and how they affected the overall polling:

—First and foremost, fourth is by the most optimistic prediction for Hofstra thus far. It wasn’t enough to improve the Flying Dutchmen’s overall rank, but it did move them within a point of Georgia State for sixth.

—The 2-3-4 logjam was jostled as Northeastern falls from second to fourth, ODU moves from third to second and Mason moves from fourth to third. All three schools are ranked in the top four in every poll but one. Other than that trio of movers, everyone remained in the same spot as before aside from the William & Mary/JMU tie being broken.

—Six polls in the books and there’s two unanimous picks: VCU first and Delaware fifth. Let’s hope Hofstra is the Dewey to VCU’s Truman come March.

That’s all for today. If you haven’t done so yet, get out and vote. After all, Hofstra magnanimously and selflessly spent millions of dollars and thousands of hours over the past year to educate you about how important it is to cast a ballot. If you fail to vote, the whole year will have been for naught.

Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com.