hey hogs fans, at least we're not from michigan

What's it like to watch your team open the season ranked #5 in the country by losing to a Division 1-AA schedule filler AT HOME? I dunno, ask a Michigan fan. How about this eye-popper: Appalachian State 34, #5 Michigan 32. Yeah, that's a 1-AA team thumping one of the most storied programs in football in its own house.

To realize the magnitude of that upset, consider this: those 1-AA teams are below even the mid-major 1-A teams that often show up on nonconference schedules, are not bowl eligible, and are considered so overmatched that a win over them doesn't even count toward the required six wins for bowl eligibility. Big schools' practice squads are better than most 1-AA teams. I wasn't aware any schools except Arkansas and a handful of others even had such cupcakes on their schedule.

For example, recall that back in the 2001 season when 9/11 caused a weekend of college football (still early in the season when a lot of BCS-conference teams like Arkansas were still playing nonconference fluff teams) to be cancelled and left teams scrambling to fill byes in later weeks to make up for the lost game, Arkansas couldn't find a weak Division 1-A mid-major opponent whose bye week matched and who was willing to travel to Fayetteville to play. Keep in mind that since the cancelled game was at home there was no chance the powers that be were going to sacrifice a game's worth of revenue by replacing it with a road game. So it added 1-AA Weber State to the schedule. This move infuriated a lot of fans and talking heads because such a meaningless opponent offered little value other than financial, and of greater concern, it meant the Hogs couldn't count that cakewalk toward bowl eligibility and so they'd have to beat one more SEC opponent to get to a bowl. I don't remember if they made a bowl that year, but I remember it was an issue when folks found out about that game being the schedule filler.

Back to the humiliation at hand. This quote from the article needs no further comment: "No Division I-AA team had beaten a team ranked in The Associated Press poll between 1989 and 2006, and it's unlikely that it had ever happened before." So, yeah, no question that's one of the biggest upsets in college football history. I'd compare it to a 16 beating a 1 in March Madness, but I don't even know if that does it justice. I mean, the basketball games are on neutral courts, or at least more neutral than one of the hardest stadiums to come away from with a win in college football.

Wolverines fans, perhaps you should put those national title hopes on hold for a year. Oh, and did I mention that your team SUCKS? I'm sure that somewhere my college roommate and friend John, a.k.a. The Greatest Michigan Hater Alive, is still rolling on the floor in laughter.