  The CDF preliminary analysis on polarized charmonium production at moderate
transverse momentum, $p_T \sim 4 - 20$ GeV, severely challenges the color octet
model (COM), which predicts quarkonium to be transversely polarized with
increasing $p_T$. Based on this data, we analyze the compatibility of the
Tevatron and the photoproduction at HERA in the context of the COM. Due to the
uncertainty on the extraction of non-relativistic QCD (NRQCD) matrix elements
and a lack of complete next-to-leading order calculations, one cannot
completely rule out the COM. Nonetheless, both collider experiments seem to
push the input matrix elements to opposite directions, and the puzzle of
quarkonium polarization remains unsolved.
