Wolverines' fan responses

I've got to say, some people's reactions to the enormous upset this weekend between Division I-AA Appalachian State and Division I-A powerhouse Michigan is quite surprising, especially coming from the true blue fans themselves.

One man wrote this comment, "Honestly this isn't that big of an upset." He continued to say that Division I-AA is extremely underrated.

Another stated, "I ranked it #3 behind Temple in 1998 and NC State in 1998. Temple gets my top vote because they are horrible. I mean, they are so bad the Big East asked them to leave the conference."

An obvious Michigan fan had this to say, "polls are hogwash. they are just someone's opinion. how are the national champs not ranked number one is a complete joke. they earned that spot last year.
this isnt the biggest upset in college football because App St. is very good."

Here was another comment, "they may be AA... but champs two years in a row? They can obviously play ball, and mchigan got caught sleepwalking, its a great upset, but app state is a great team.... if some random .500 AA team beat michigan, give me a call... app state could probably win the MAC this year, they are a good team"

Here's another statement, "people are so quick to rank something that JUST happened as the "greatest ever" nowadays...i dunno why but it's a craze that has exploded in the last couple years...this is not the greatest upset in college football history, not by a longshot.
1998 - Temple 28, Virginia Tech 24 (in Blacksburg)
this Appalachian State team would kick the snot out of that Temple team...Virginia Tech was ranked #14 and undefeated."

...and yet another, "It was a big upset, but people saying it was the biggest upset EVER are biased against small schools. People in Ann Arbor knew they were good. That's all the papers said around Ann Arbor BEFORE the game! App St. didn't win two national championships in 2 years for nothing! People who are talking so much trash about UofM are either biased or ill-informed about App St. They'd beat MOST teams in Div I and would EASILY be top 20 in the AP poll. Remember Marshall back in the 90's? That's App St. now ... just App St. is BETTER."

...and (yawns) yet another, "Wow... you guys don't do much research when looking up biggest upsets of all time... It appears as though you just look up games involving Notre Dame and Ohio State... Back in 1998, a horrid New Mexico State squad went to play a Top 20 Arizona State team and pummelled the Sun Devils 28-0 in the first half, emptying Sun Devil Stadium for the entire second half of the game while coasting to a 35-7 win... Aggie fans were so excited they tore down the field goal posts at Aggie Memorial Stadium that night... Also, in 2001, Oberlin College (one week after forfeiting a game because they couldn't put enough players on the field, toppled a solid Kenyon College team, 53-22 to snap a 44-GAME LOSING STREAK."

Thank you sir, may I have another? Yes, you certainly may, "Please!!!.......Michigan had not played a game yet, #5 ranking was idiotic. If they were say, 7-0 and the A state came in, then that would be an upset. You can't have an upset on perceptions. People thought Michigan was good but had no proof!!! Carr was right, he did not prepare his team for the game, what makes you think they will be prepared next week............have to wait and see."

From a big bluer, "UM is GOOD and have every right to be ranked No. 5 in the nation. If anyone actually watched the game, App. St. could have knocked off USC this weekend if given the chance. Folks are ripping on UM for being overrated when the truth is that App. St. is underrated. It's only an upset because the difference in the sizes of the schools is so great and because App. St. is an FCS team. UM will probably win out, but I'm sure App. St. will be undefeated this year as well, and that needs to be taken into consideration when BCS time rolls around."

No, we're not done yet. Here's yet another comment, "Initially, the App St. victory seemed like the biggest upset in college football history. But it occurred to me that in I-AA competition the champion is determined by a playoff system. Their national champion is not a function of traditional bowls (driven by marketability) or writers polls or coaches polls. National I-AA champions are determined on the field and not by pedantry of one form or another. It only stands to reason that division I-A "polls" are going to be littered with error. Thus "little" Boise State beats "mighty" Oklahoma. Michigan was ranked #5 simply because they were MICHIGAN. Last season's Ohio State/Florida I-AA" title game" was a crashing disappointment because the Emperor, Ohio State, sat on the throne without any clothes. So it is no surprise really that App St., with no storied tradition and no national exposure among writers or coaches could beat Michigan. I-AA has about half the scholarship players that I-A programs enjoy and relatively tiny stadiums. But they do have a playoff system. App St. was the true National Champion at the I-AA level the last two seasons. That makes them an excellent football team. Now, everyone knows it. Writers, coaches and commentators do not have to speculate. They've see it on the field. So, it wasn't the biggest upset. But it was a huge reality check."

A Buckeye fan had this to say, "The stakes weren't high enough to warrant the biggest upset ever. what about Ohio State beating Miami in the 2002 national championship? No one gave OSU a chance in that game, and they pulled it off. I know, they were two D-I teams, both big schools, but the stakes were so much higher. ps. michigan sucks. go bucks!"

Another Michigan fan putting in his/her half a cent, "i think it was a shocker. not an upset because i believe that they can beat most top ranked teams"

I think George Walker Bush may have typed this comment, "ohio state, wisconsin, vt i mean there is many OVERRATED teams in which the mountaineers could destroy on there home field. plaus the funny thing is that michigan paid them to come to ann arbor..hahaha whodya think lost this deal?"

And finally, "Michigan is one of the perennial overrated teams that's always in the top 25. They'd be ranked pretty high if they had 11 redshirt freshmen on both sides of the ball. Preseason polls are a joke anyway. In 2004, Troy was in their third year of DIV 1 (ranked somewhere around 118) beating a #17 Missouri team led by Heisman Hopeful Brad Smith by 10 on National TV. To put this into perspective, a few years prior to their move, they lost the I-AA playoff game 70-7 to Montana. This is only such a big deal because it's Michigan."

This isn't an upset? It's not that much of an upset? There were no high stakes involved, which negates the fact it's an upset? It was the first game of the season, so it's not an upset? Appalachian State won two consecutive titles outright at the Division I-AA level through a playoff system, so it's not really an upset? It's only an upset because it was against Michigan? Ohio State over Miami in '02 was a bigger upset? Florida over Ohio State last year? Temple over Virginia Tech? NC State over Florida State? New Mexico State over Arizona State? Oberlin over Kenyon?

There are different classes, different divisions, different leagues for a reason. There's a reason why you don't see the New York Yankees face the Richmond Braves during the course of the regular season. There's a reason why you don't see the New England Patriots square off against Boston College on a Sunday afternoon in October. You won't see Duke face teh Boston Celtics anytime soon. You won't see the Nebraska Cornhuskers face the UNO Mavericks (University of Nebraska at Omaha) in November anytime soon. Division I-AA was 2-21 this weekend against Division I-A opponents. Their only other victory was a 16-14 win by Nicholls State over Rice. Outside of that and the 34-32 victory by Appalachian State over Michigan, Division I-AA went 0-21.

These included:
Boise State 56 Weber State 7
Cincinnati 59 Southeast Missouri State 3
Louisville 73 Murray State 10
New Mexico State 35 Southeast Louisiana 14
Ohio State 38 Youngstown State 6
Florida 49 Western Kentucky 3
Air Force 34 South Carolina State 3
Northwestern 27 Northeastern 0
North Carolina 37 James Madison 14
Maryland 31 Villanova 14
Kentucky 50 Eastern Kentucky 10
Texas A&M 38 Montana State 7
Southern Mississippi 35 Tennessee-Martin 13
Ohio 36 Gardner-Webb 14
Vanderbilt 41 Richmond 17
Alabama 52 Western Carolina 6
South Florida 28 Elon 13
Louisiana Tech 28 Central Arkansas 7
Indiana 55 Indiana State 7
Fresno State 24 Sacramento State 3
Hawaii 63 Northern Colorado 6

There you have it. Outside of the two victories by Division I-AA, they were outscored 889-177 by Division I-A, a combined margin of 712 points in 21 games. The average score of those games was 42.3 to 8.4, an average margin of 33.9 points per contest. Even if you include the two victories by Division I-AA this past weekend, that closes the gap to a final score of 935-227 (difference of 708 points). The average score in these 23 games would be 40.7-9.9, an average margin of 30.8 points. The closest game between these two separate divisions outside the two losses was a 15-point victory by South Florida over Elon.

If one wants to compare the teams that played one another based on their performances last season, the Division I-A squads finished 177-119 (.598), with 14 of the teams finishing with winning records and 9 finishing with losing ones. The Division I-AA teams were a combined 121-132 (.478), with 11 posting winning records and 11 finishing the season below the .500 mark. Of all the games played, seven of the twenty-two eligible Division I-AA teams (Central Arkansas got bumped up to I-AA this year) posted better records than their Division I-A opponent last year. With math as our guide, that means that fifteen Division I-A teams posted better records than Division I-AA opponent from this past weekend.

The National Championship upsets of Ohio State over Miami and Florida over Ohio State were unexpected by the majority, sure, but many people still picked the underdog. These were the top two teams (according to the BS poll) in 2002 and 2007. It's not like a 16-seed with a .500 regular season record went on to win the national championship in college basketball. Ohio State went into the game last year with an unbeaten record and Florida came in with one loss. I'm sorry, but that is not a major upset. North Carolina State over Florida State was definitely an upset, but NC State has been a fairly steady and pesky college football program for several years. While it was an upset, the magnitude of the victory did not match, say, Temple's win over Virginia Tech. While yes, I agree, Temple has had a pathetic football program for several years now and were about booted out of the Big East, they are still a Division I-A program. That may have been the upset of the season and potentially even the upset of the '90s, but Temple is a household name for most college football gurus and have provided an upset or two throughout their pitiful history. Upsets like that have occurred before, where a typical doormat of a major conference knocks off an upper tier program in one of the six big name conferences. Illinois/Indiana/Northwestern in the Big Ten, Baylor/Iowa State (now) in the Big XII, Rutgers (before they got good) in the Big East, North Carolina in the ACC, Stanford and Arizona in the Pac-10, and the Mississippi schools, Kentucky (of the past), and Vanderbilt in the SEC. When Mississippi State upsets Florida, it's a huge upset, but with the scholarships, the coaching, and the parity at the I-A level, it is bound to happen once, maybe twice a year.

But, that brings me to the Michigan game. While I despise pre-season polls, Michigan was unbeaten a season ago before falling to Ohio State in their regular season finale. They had arguments about being one of the two participants in the national championship game. On offense, they returned some key starters, in quarterback Chad Henne, tailback Mike Hart, Mario Manningham at receiver, amongst others. Offensively, this was to be their year. They were picked by many analysts to win the Big Ten and some even picked them as one of the two teams to face off in the final game of the season, the national championship. Michigan is a perennial powerhouse on the college football landscape. They regularly win 9 games a season. If they win 8, that's a down year and their head coach immediately lands himself on the hot seat. Unlike the previous scenarios I mentioned, this was the FIRST, count it, the FIRST time that a Division I-AA team had beaten a ranked Division I-A opponent. Mississippi State upsetting a team like Florida? It's happened before? A Temple upsetting Virginia Tech? It's happened before? An underdog in a title game getting the better of the favorite? Again, that's happened several times. This was the FIRST time in history that such a thing has happened. Ranked Division I-A schools face Division I-AA teams every year. Some (Texas Tech or K-State, for instance) will even face two Division I-AA squads in a single season. In the history of the polling system, this was the very FIRST time that such a thing has occurred. Why are people trying to downplay that fact? It's not an upset? Appalachian State over Michigan is not an upset? The Mountaineers could beat just about any team at the I-A level? Many gave Boise State grief last year, claiming they couldn't handle the weekly battles in a major conference, such as the SEC or Pac-10. But, all of a sudden, Division I-AA powerhouse, Appalachian State, could do that? I can honestly say that not one, not one credible, non-biased source picked the Mountaineers to win this game. Some people may have picked Florida over Ohio State, Ohio State over Miami, even a huge upset in a major conference, the magnitude of a Vanderbilt over a Georgia, but nobody picked Division I-AA Appalachian State over I-A power, Michigan. Only friends and family of Mountaineer players, along with coaches, fans, and the players themselves picked Appalachian State to win the game. ESPN commentator, Mike Tirico, made mention that the Mountaineers wouldn't get shut out in the game, that they'd score a couple times, but even he didn't say they'd win the game. Boise State's win over Oklahoma last year was nothing compared to this. Florida over Ohio State? Nothing. Ohio State over Miami, Mississippi State over Florida, NC State over Florida State, even Temple over Virginia Tech? Nothing. The whole David vs. Goliath cliche' in the sports world was given an entirely different meaning this past weekend. It made sense to refer to Boise State as David last year and Oklahoma as Goliath. We may need to re-phrase that cliche' for this monumental and historic upset. No longer does David vs. Goliath even make sense. How about the Microorganism vs. Goliath or the Ant vs. Goliath? That makes more sense for an upset of this magnitude. I've seen a great deal of upsets in my day and loved the majority of the, but never, never have I seen one quite like this. Is it the biggest upset in history? As always, that's debatable. But, it is definitely the biggest upset in college football during my lifetime.