The Rest of College Football

[AlabamAlum]

I thought earlier that I wished that game was on another night.

Braves > Mountaineers upsetting CC.

[lineygoblue]

Down goes Coastal Carolina. Appalachian State gets its second win over a ranked team in program history. We all remember the first one.

Never in the history of college football has a team gotten so much mileage out a single win. They should be sending Michigan thank you cards at the end of every season. Nobody knew that App State even played football until that game.

[Cody_Russell]

A notable college football game on a Wednesday? Like sure, maybe there are random MAC conference games on Wednesdays. It's noteworthy that an undefeated team like Coastal Carolina goes down.

I had no idea Coastal Carolina played yesterday with the Braves vs Dodgers and NBA opening games going on last night. BTW, yay Braves! Don't choke, Atlanta/ Georgia team!

[AlabamAlum]

ATL is no doubt the hometown of Coca-Cola and Choke-a-Cola.

[Cody_Russell]

Yup.
I mentioned Georgia… or Georgia football… too because I imagine a lot of Georgia fans like the Braves.
Blowing that national championship game against Bama when Georgia hasn’t won a championship since 1980 must have sucked.

Well perhaps the Braves and Georgia football win it all this season. That’s a chance barring classic choke.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Never in the history of college football has a team gotten so much mileage out a single win. They should be sending Michigan thank you cards at the end of every season. Nobody knew that App State even played football until that game.

Not entirely fair. It raised their profile but they entered that game as the back-to-back FCS champs.

[lineygoblue]

Oh, so when Michigan lost to App State, they lost to a defending National Champion that went on to win yet another NC?

Really?

When the sports outlets gleefully discuss "App State", those facts are never mentioned. The only thing we hear is that a little college from Barefeet North Carolina came into Ann Arbor and defeated "mighty Michigan".

I've mentioned that several times, in this forum, only to be mocked to scorn.

[iam416]

Utterly specious.

[lineygoblue]

Utterly specious.

What is misleading about my comment?

I stated that App State was a very good football team. A defending National Champion, that went on that same year and won yet another championship.

Michigan came into the game drunk and/or hung over, .. (some former players confessed that many of them were still buzzed from smoking pot the night before) put in a "just show up" appearance, and was thoroughly outplayed and defeated.

All I ever said, and am saying now, is that App State was a very good football team, and they don't receive credit for what they really were. To hear sports wags talk about it, you'd think that App State came in as a multiple-season winless team, and beat the snot out of Michigan. In fact, App State was a doggone good football team that could have beaten a lot of P5 teams that day.

But, .. Michigan .. App State ... biggest win ever ...

yessir.

[CGVT]

App State was a premier DII school

App State's coach at the time, Jerry Moore, always said that first game of the year, they were good enough to have a shot at beating anybody, but later in the season when the injuries started to pile up, their chances of winning were not as good because they just didn't have the kind of depth that DI schools could stockpile

App State took advantage of the transfer rules that allowed DI players to play without having to sit out a year when they transferred to a DII school. A lot of their kids were DI kids that were buried on the depth chart at big schools and transferred for a chance to play.
There were 4 players on that App State team that went on to play in the NFL

[iam416]

First, you stated that Appy State was an off the radar team that was nothing until they beat M. That's just false. Completely wrong. Appy State was the premiere D-1AA team and well on their way to D1 when they beat M. Nothing about that win changed the arc of Appy State's progress. Nothing. That's the path they were on.

Second, in terms of the actual upset, the key unmentioned point is that M was ranked in the top 5. Now, they obviously weren't a top 5 team. And Appy State was better than even you average D-1AA champion (maybe, in that particular season they lost twice and only tied for their own conference title). But, still, a D-1AA team beat a top 5 team. That will always be a ginormous deal. If North Dakota State marched into Norman and beat Oklahoma that would be an enormous deal.

[AlabamAlum]

App State marched into Ann Arbor and took down a traditional, major CFB blueblood. They should be lauded for that. Just like when we paid La-Monroe to come into Bryant-Denny and take our lunch money in Saban’s first year.

The fact that the press and La-Monroe thinks it was such an incredible feat is more of an accolade lobbed at Alabama (and Michigan in the previous example) than some kind of insult. LaMonroe bought billboards for at least two seasons that I know of. Revel in it.

[Mike]

I can't believe I'm gonna join this conversation. Must be an indication that I need to up my meds.

The problem with that game is App State should have never been scheduled. IIRC, that was right around the time when the 12 game schedule became permanent and Michigan was desperately trying to fill an open date. Any P5 program would want a return date and pretty much all the other D1 teams were spoken for. The expanded schedule was a big factor in D1 teams having to schedule 1-AA (now FCS) schools for a short period of time. Same reason we had to bring in Delaware State. The brass at Michigan decided that if they had to stoop to the 1-AA level to cash in another home date, they would at least find the best team possible. Enter: Appalachian State in the midst of 3 consecutive 1-AA national titles and their spready, read-option offense with a quality dual threat QB. It would have been near impossible for any big time program to get up for App St in 2007 but it just so happened that Michigan got to be the national laughingstock.

App St. probably would have finished in the middle of the pack in most P5 conferences that year and qualified for a bowl game but that wasn't evident prior to that fateful day. The very next week Gardner Webb beat ASU and I'll always remember the MGoBlog comment that they celebrated with a blowout furniture sale. LOL

[lineygoblue]

First, you stated that Appy State was an off the radar team that was nothing until they beat M. That's just false. Completely wrong. Appy State was the premiere D-1AA team and well on their way to D1 when they beat M. Nothing about that win changed the arc of Appy State's progress. Nothing. That's the path they were on.

As Mike stated, App State was a very good team in the midst of winning multiple NC's. My point about them being pretty much unknown in P5 circles is valid. Did ESPN, Fox Sports, CBS, ABC, et al, trumpet the glories of App State's national championships before their trip to Ann Arbor? Heck no! Shoot, just the 20 or so people in this forum couldn't have told you where App State was even FROM, until after they beat Michigan. Everyone would have to look it up on Google.

My point is exactly what you said at the end of the quote above. App State was a doggone good football team, and IMO, the MAGNATUDE of their win over Michigan is not as great as its reported to be. A very good DII team, beat a P5 team because they were good. NOT in spite of being a bottom feeder from Barefoot NC.

Do we agree that App State was a very good team?

[Dr. Strangelove]

Western Kentucky
Middle Tennessee
UTEP
Florida International
Louisiana Tech
Old Dominion

MTSU and WKU have a ton of history together going back to when they were both in the Ohio Valley Conference for decades (another conference in FCS that may not survive much longer). But other than that, those six schools have no history together

Western Kentucky, MTSU, and Florida International all abandoned the Sun Belt when it looked like CUSA was going to be the better league. Maybe there is bad blood there, I dunno.

Circling back to this briefly, the latest is now Southern Miss, Marshall, AND Old Dominion leaving CUSA for Sun Belt. James Madison moving up from FCS to be school #14 in the Sun Belt.

That would leave CUSA with only 5 members and below NCAA requirements. They could add Liberty, maybe, but I suspect Liberty would be looking for something better from the start. New Mexico State is a possibility too and would be close to UTEP. Other than that the only realistic option is recruiting more teams from FCS.

I think the MAC is pretty stable and not in threat of being poached. A MAC school might ditch decades of rivalries if an invite to the Big10 came. I don't see them bolting for a shitty version of CUSA which involves frequent travel to El Paso and Ruston, Louisiana.