Winter 2021 Men’s Varsity Top 20 & Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference Top Five Preseason Polls Released

BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — Defending National Champion Stanford University and the University of Southern California will enter the Winter 2021 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Men’s Water Polo season as co-favorites per the National Top 20 Poll released today by the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA).

In a year unlike any other in the history of intercollegiate athletics, the CWPA also announced that defending Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference (MAWPC) Champion Bucknell University is favored to repeat as league champion in the Winter of 2021.

Due to the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SCIAC) electing not to compete during the moved Fall 2020/Winter 2021 Men’s Varsity season, a Division III Top 10 poll will not be conducted during the season.  Further, in light of Brown University, St. Francis College Brooklyn, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology deciding not to compete this year, a Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) Top Five poll will also not be conducted.  Iona College, which is an active NCAA program for the Winter 2021 season as of December 30, will move over to the MAWPC for this year and will be considered in consideration for that group’s Top Five over the next several months.

Further, teams which have announced their intention to not compete during the Winter 2021 NCAA Men’s Water Polo season via  a statement on their institutional/athletics website were not considered for the preseason polls.  For example, University of the Pacific and Long Beach State University – along with the SCIAC and NWPC programs – were not factored into the final votes for the Top 20.  Programs which have declared an intention to their conference to not compete, but have not released a public statement of their intention, were considered for both the Top 20 and MAWPC Top Five.  Due to the fluid nature of the season, the Preseason Polls are the best estimate of programs which intend to compete and should not be considered a declarative/definitive statement of a program’s intent to compete during the Winter 2021 season.

Voted on by a panel of coaches from the MAWPC, NWPC, Golden Coast Conference, Western Water Polo Association (WWPA), Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF), SCIAC and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the polls will be compiled and released on Wednesdays during the abbreviated Winter 2021 season through the week following the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Championship slated for March 18, 20 and 21 on the campus of Stanford in Palo Alto, Calif.

Winter 2021 Men’s Varsity National Top 20 (Preseason)

Defending National Champion Stanford University and the University of Southern California stand tied for the No. 1 position in the Winter 2021 Preseason National Men’s Varsity Top 20 Poll.

Stanford, which downed host University of the Pacific by a 13-8 score in the 2019 NCAA Championship title game held at the Chris Kjeldsen Pool Complex in Stockton, Calif., and USC both netted 97 points to lead the preseason rankings.

The University of California-Los Angeles (92 points), Pepperdine University (83 points), the University of California (80 points), the University of California-Santa Barbara (74 points), the University of California-Davis (70 points) and the University of California-San Diego (60 points) rate at No. 3-to-8, respectively, with Loyola Marymount University (52 points) and Bucknell University (52 points) rounding out the Top 10 by tying at No. 9.

California Baptist University (46 points), the University of California-Irvine (40 points), George Washington University (39 points), the United States Naval Academy (38 points), San Jose State University (35 points), Fordham University (27 points), Santa Clara University (26 points), the United States Air Force Academy (21 points), Wagner College (11 points) and Concordia University (8 points) complete the Top 20 at No. 11-to-20.

Winter 2021 Men’s Varsity Mid-Atlantic Water Polo Conference Top 5 (Preseason)

Defending league champion Bucknell University will open the Winter 2021 Men’s Varsity season at No. 1 in the MAWPC Preseason Top Five Poll.

The 2016 and 2019 MAWPC Champion Bison (97 points) lead a Top Five which is experiences some changes due to the Northeast Water Polo Conference (NWPC) not competing as a unified group in 2021.  

Iona College of the NWPC will compete in 2021 as the Gaels merge into the MAWPC for this season to join Bucknell, Fordham University, George Washington University, the United States Naval Academy, Wagner College, La Salle University in the Eastern Region.  Gannon University, Mercyhurst University, Salem University, Washington & Jefferson College, McKendree University and newcomer Mount St. Mary’s University plan to compete in the Western Region.  Both Monmouth College and Johns Hopkins University elected not to compete in 2021, while Connecticut College announced their intention to not compete in the MAWPC this year and may contest a non-conference schedule.

Behind the Bison, Navy (94 points) steams into the runner-up spot with George Washington (92 points), Fordham (86 points) and Wagner (48 points) rounding out the Top Five.