Introducing the Schuylkill 16

A weekly ranking of men's basketball teams in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware.

by Jonathan Tannenwald

Published Nov. 12, 2008, 9:38 p.m. ET

Last week, I hatched an idea for a reader poll-based ranking of the men's basketball programs in our region.

Tonight I can report that said idea has broken out of its egg and taken flight.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the Schuylkill 16. Each week, a panel of voters will come together to rank a wide range of teams with ties to Philadelphia and its environs. They include the City Six schools, Penn State, Lehigh, Lafayette, Bucknell, Rutgers, Princeton, Monmouth, Rider, Delaware and Delaware State.

The voting panel is just as wide-ranging, from

» READ MORE: bloggers

» READ MORE: podcasters

» READ MORE: fans

and even a few mainstream media types. There are a lot of them, so I won't introduce them all here, but rest assured you'll meet many of them over the course of the season.

The technical side of how the teams are ranked is that each team gets a point for the rank at which it is voted. So the team with the fewest points (i.e. 1 for the top rank and 16 for the bottom) will be ranked first.

(Yes, this is in part because I'm too lazy to assign points based on rankings, which is how the AP and every other poll in civilization works.)

Voters also have the opportunity to offer commentary with their ballots, which will be referred to here as Pithy Comments in honor (and with the consent) of the Washington Post's

» READ MORE: Atlantic 11 poll

. There may also be write-in candidates from time to time.

With all that said, here are the official Schuylkill 16 Pre-Season Poll Rankings and the accompanying pithy comments.

- "No. 1 due to fantastic returning class" (Rob Falcone,

» READ MORE: DAC Pack president

)

- "If coach Ed DeChellis wants to coach for as many seasons as Joe Paterno, he'll have to stay on until at least 2045." (Zach Klitzman,

» READ MORE: The Daily Pennsylvanian

)

"In Goodridge I trust... hope... pray... beg." (Bob S.)

- "12 losing records for the field last season. That leaves plenty of room for upward mobility." (Jeff Shafer)

- "Glen Miller hopes the Quakers are "In the Mood" for 7 a.m. practices." (Zach Klitzman)

- "Strong squad despite loss of Jason Thompson" (Rob Falcone)

- "They were 7th on my ballot, but I'm expecting big things out of Delaware this year." (Rob C.)

- "Bruiser Flint is complaining that St. Joe's didn't want to play all of their home games in his team's stadium." (Zach Klitzman)

(Note to Bruiser: I will not be sitting behind the Drexel bench on Tuesday, so please don't take it out on me.)

- "Could Princeton be the worst team in college basketball? As a product of state education, me hope so." (Dan Levy,