Let’s take a poll. How many of you know where Appalachian State University is located? If you just muttered under your breath, “Boone, N.C.,” you’re either a freak of nature or, more likely, you heard about the tiny school’s upset of the century over the Michigan Wolverines.
Be honest — only a sliver of you knew where the school was before that fateful Saturday afternoon on Sept. 1. It’s not as if the Mountaineers angered the gods of college football by defeating Michigan, a juggernaut with a home record of 63-7 in the last 10 years. Even the gods of football were unaware of Appalachian State’s existence.
Appalachian State belongs to a different universe, much less a different division of college football, than the Wolverines. The Mountaineers, formerly of Division-II status (now known as the Football Championship Division), were previously ineligible for Teddy Greenstein’s rankings (ChicagoSports.com), let alone any major top-25 list.
Indeed, the moment safety Corey Lynch blocked Michigan kicker Julian Rauch’s field goal to seal the game, 34-32, Appalachian State put itself on the map and in the consciences of college football fans (and gods) everywhere.
Sports Illustrated canonized the victory by plastering Appalachian State wide receiver Dexter Jackson with the words “All-time Upset” on the cover of its Sept. 10 issue.
And on Sept. 6, the Associated Press opened its Top 25 poll to lower division schools — a door that had been shut since its inception.
While the Mountaineers have yet to crack the Top 25, they received five votes on Monday and remain on the outside looking in.
Not that it matters much to the Mountaineers. The school with a stadium that holds just more than 16,000 people is perfectly content to march into Michigan Stadium (aka “The Big House”) and cause some 109,000 screaming fans painted in yellow to turn green with nausea.
A Division-II opponent has beaten a Division-I school more than a few times. But no Division-II program had taken down a ranked team, and certainly not one ranked as high as No. 5 in the country
Michigan is the most successful establishment in college football. Since it began competing in 1879, the school has more wins (861), more winning seasons (109) and a higher winning percentage (74 percent) than anyone in NCAA history. Don’t forget its 25 undefeated seasons and 11 national championships.
In short, Appalachian State football players had no business breathing the air in Ann Arbor.
Michigan enjoys first pickings among the top prep recruits in the nation. Because it’s an upper-division university, it gets some two-dozen extra scholarships to entice those recruits.
What was meant to be a hiccup on Michigan’s schedule developed into a gross underestimation. It wasn’t merely the planets aligning in Appalachian State’s upset. Every asteroid, dust belt and quanta combined into a giant neon-flashing arrow pointed directly at Boone, N.C. This was Appalachian State’s three hours of unimpeded fate.
Sure, Michigan hasn’t proved to be the powerhouse everyone thought it would be with a loss to Oregon the following week. But a loss to such underdogs as the Mountaineers is bound to take weeks for the ego to heal and the psyche to recover.
Utah’s trouncing over UCLA on Saturday is one of the greatest in its history, no doubt. But if this argument is based on which upset created the bigger waves, look no further than what the sports ticker on ESPN reported as the Utes were closing in on victory:
UCLA at Utah: “Upset brewing in Provo.”
