Philadelphia is widely regarded as a town of fickle, uptight sports fans. One minute fans will pack Veterans Stadium to support showman (now bench-warmer) Randall Cunningham, the next they're staying home during playoff time. In what other town would an NBA franchise not sell out its playoff games?

But lest we descend into geocentrism, it's important to remember that for all the City of Brotherly Love's lack of Brotherly Loyalty, there is always one group more lazy and superficial in their sports analysis: pollsters. They may be expert columnists, ready to regurgitate minute trivia, or coaches reared on nothing but Gatorade and Knute Rockne speeches. But give them a vote in a poll, and they're no more principled or sophisticated in their analysis than the average Yankee fan.

With that in mind, let's examine perhaps the most interesting phenomena of this once-potentially dreary now-potentially-inspiring Harvard winter sports season.

Heading into break, the men's hockey team is ranked third in the nation. (That's one notch above Lake Superior State, defending national champions, and seven notches above Boston University, a team Harvard hasn't beaten in three years.)

Third in the nation. Is this a title contending team? Do the pollsters know something about Harvard that everyone else doesn't?

The answers are yes and definitely no. There are two key factors we need to consider here.

Talent. The more Harvard plays, the more it becomes clear that the Crimson does have the skill to play with any team in the nation.

The three eldest members of the team--junior Captain Ted Drury, senior Matt Mallgrave, senior Steve Flomenhoft--are all stars in their own right (Drury clearly being one of the brightest in the NCAA galaxy). The juniors remain the key to the potent defense. When using their heads and attacking the corners, Harvard's blue-line crew (in addition to junior forward Brian Farrell) can shut down any attack.

The super sophomores--once Cambridge's own fabulous freshmen--provide stability and scoring punch throughout the lineup, while the freshman goalies remain the suprise success of the season (Tripp Tracy leads the league in overall goals-against-average).

Mind you, this is a team that is missing two of its best players: sophomore Hobey-Baker-candidate-to-be Steve Martins and junior defensive stalwart Derek Maguire. Imagine the power play and penalty-killing-units when those two return. Wow.

This, of course, leads us to the second major consideration.

Competition. The more Harvard plays, the more it becomes clear that this team has no one to play with--in the ECAC that is. Harvard's the big kid on the block, because everyone around it is infants. Rensselaer is ranked ninth in the nation. That's a joke. RPI may be young and fiery, but until it learns to play defense, it won't get very far. The pollsters are just giving them the nod so they don't embarass the ECAC. Which is what the league is: an embarrassment.

Certainly, all east coast hockey has taken a tumble these past two years, but at least Hockey East has the number-one team in the nation. The ECAC, on the other hand, has Clarkson--once the media's darling, now a team heading for an early spring break in lovely Potsdam, N.Y.

With such an easy schedule, Harvard could make it through the season with at most two league losses (perhaps a road split in the North Country and a defeat in the ECAC tournament, a traditional stumbling block), and, with a record like that, the Crimson would no doubt get a high bid for the NCAA tournament.

Harvard's problem, then, is simple: how do you compete among the best in the country come March, when you've been playing mediocre opponents for four and half months? No matter how talented a team is, it has to be tested. It has to play the best to become the best--that's a cardinal rule of athletics.

Harvard may be third in the nation, but it seems that's more a reflection of the team's talent than its true accomplishments. Yes, it's 8-1-1 heading into tonight's Dartmouth game. And yes, it's five-points above Yale in the ECAC.

But sometime before the NCAA tournament (if we dare look that far ahead), sometime before we truly accept the fact that we have the third best team in the nation skating in Bright Hockey Center, this team has to be tested for real.

That's something the pollsters haven't counted on.

Jay K. Varma is a Crimson staff writer.