Saturday, September 1, 2007

DI AA - Subdivision to Noone Today!

No.1 Appalachian St. beat Michigan today.

That's the ranking for App St....in Division I AA!!!! We have often asked if parity in college football was a good thing. Well, NO ONE ever asked about parity with DIAA!!! Last year, we saw teams like Montana St. beat Colorado and Northern Iowa nearly beat Iowa St. Yet today - we saw history. Unreal history.

Michigan - preseason No. 5 in Division IA - lost at HOME to the 2 time defending National Champion of DIAA. App. St. kicked the go ahead field goal with :30 to play. Then, after a miracle pass to get into field goal range, App St. BLOCKED the winning attempt by the Wolverines to win the game. Amazing.....they are the first DIAA team to beat a ranked DIA team. And it comes in the BIG HOUSE!

If Boise St. ended the debate that we need a college football playoff to decide the National Championship for the BCS. Then App St. just showed that good football teams come in all shapes and sizes...and all divisions. What I want to know now is - what would UMass and Northern Iowa do against Michigan? They both lost in the National Championship game to App St. the last 2 years and played them tough. I can say this - they won' t get the chance because nobody is going to want to play DIAA teams if this keeps up.

By the way - it was the first ever broadcast of the Big Ten Network for Michigan......think they will want to play on them again?

4 comments:

Nate said...

While the Wyoming game was certainly an upset, I think you're a little mixed up. Wyoming plays in the Mountain West. They are not D-1AA.

Matt Perrault said...

Yup - got Wyoming and Montana mixed up...thanks for that....

Husker4Yankees said...

Wow....Michigan....

I was watching the crawler to see the updates and was simply amazed. And I will say this, I know the kids that go to 1-AA schools are good kids, but this is Michigan. This is the school with the most all-time wins. This is a national program that can get kids just because they are Michigan.

Carr's days at Michigan are numbered. The only thing that can save him, and even this is a stretch, is to win out from here. Win every game, win the Big 10 and a BSC bowl game. Anything short of that and Les Miles becomes the next Michigan head coach.

I think schools will continue to schedule these teams. They give many teams that extra home game and the money that it brings. Obviously coaches have input, but do not control scheduling at most schools--just ask Tom Osborne. If coaches controlled scheduling, the Big 12 would have never had a championship game. Money and the mentality that 'it can't happen to us' will rule out.

Brian in Lincoln said...

What the first week of College Football proved is that parity of the norm anymore. It also shows that not all the 5 star recruits are the ones making the plays on saturdays. Preparation is key and responding to adversity will take a lot of so so teams a long way if they show they can do this.

Teams I am not sold on after week 1: Missouri and Texas