OK. First props of the college football season go out to the Appalachian State Mountaineers, who went into the Big House as 35 point dogs and came away with perhaps the biggest upset in modern college football history. (I'm really not well versed on major upsets throughout the history of college football, so I can't say this is the biggest ever.)
While this is a big upset, it's probably not as huge as most people will make it out to be. Let me make one thing clear: It IS a huge upset. But the difference between I-A (um - Football Bowl Subdivision) and I-AA (Football Championship Subdivision) teams isn't as wide as you might think. Is it as wide as the Grand Canyon? Probably. But it's not like as wide as say the Atlantic or Pacific oceans. Just because a team is I-AA, that doesn't automatically mean they're going to lose to every I-A team. There are 120 I-A (FBS) teams and 122 I-AA (FCS) teams. Compare that to 336 Division I basketball teams, many of which in the middle of the pack are able to compete with and beat the very best on any given day. The very best I-AA teams (Top 10-15) can probably compete with the lower 1/3rd of I-A teams.
Now to give this a March Madness spin, we always see mid-majors coming out and sending a stud team packing. And unless it's your stud team or you have them advancing far in your bracket, you most likely love it. I know I do. Which is why I loved today's upset. It's the whole David versus Goliath thing and there's really not much bigger of a Goliath than Michigan in front of 107,000 in the Big House.
Congratulations Moutaineers.
- Props also to my UMass Minutemen, who opened the season with a 40 to 30 win over Holy Cross. (App. State beat UMass in last season's National Championship game.) The Minutemen are number 3 in the FCS poll, but unless/until they lose, no one will be knocking App. State from that # 1 spot now.
Ashley Allen
Shanon Lersh
Best Players 6-5 and Under
Did You See That?
Comments (1) Add A Comment
Comment
Remember to keep your posts clean. Profanity will get filtered, and offensive comments will be removed.