The Appy Factor

[Taosman]

Watch this weekend for another possible small school upset.
Appy State has given the little guys hope they can play with the big dogs.
Like the L'ville score last night.
Middle Tennessee St 42, Louisville 58 (final)

 

[HineyBuck]

I can assure you that App State will not be taking Lenoir-Rhyne lightly; even if they did lose to Virginia Union last week.

 

[bkochmc]

Here's another Appy Factor:

ESPN - AP: Lower-division schools now eligible for poll - College Football

AP: Lower-division schools eligible thanks to Mountaineers

Associated Press

Updated: September 6, 2007, 7:13 PM ETAfter pulling off one of the greatest upsets in college football history, Appalachian State is still shaking things up.

The Associated Press said Thursday that lower-division schools -- that means you, Mountaineers -- are now eligible for its 71-year-old poll.

"It's great they opened the door," Appalachian State coach Jerry Moore said. "Certainly we're not going to be the No. 1 team in the country. We know that. We're not even going to be in the top 10. But if you have a win over a nice football team, I like that it's not out of the realm of possibility for a school like us to be one of the top 20 or 25 teams in the country."

Continued...

 

[Fungo Squiggly]

Here's another Appy Factor:

ESPN - AP: Lower-division schools now eligible for poll - College Football

Utterly asinine. The remainder of their schedule consists of:

LENOIR-RHYNE
Northern Arizona
Wofford
Elon
Gardner-Webb
Georgia Southern
Furman
The Citadel
Western

Other than a huge upset against a team (now no longer in the Top 25) how do you even begin to compare ASU and their schedule to the Div I-A teams. You can't just keep moving them up in the rankings when they win each week. What a ridiculous knee-jerk reaction.

 

[Taosman]

I don't understand it, either?

 

[Mike80]

Utterly asinine. The remainder of their schedule consists of:

LENOIR-RHYNE
Northern Arizona
Wofford
Elon
Gardner-Webb
Georgia Southern
Furman
The Citadel
Western

Other than a huge upset against a team (now no longer in the Top 25) how do you even begin to compare ASU and their schedule to the Div I-A teams. You can't just keep moving them up in the rankings when they win each week. What a ridiculous knee-jerk reaction.

I personally think the AP should be able to rank whoever they want too. It's their top 25 after all. But you're right, to allow this only now after the App State win at Michigan is stupid.

 

[bkochmc]

Since they are allowing "lower divisions" into the poll now, the AP should place Mt. Union ahead of Louisville since they scored 52 points in the first quarter of their game last week... Louisville could only muster 28 last night!

I think that ASU would only make a brief appearance in the poll at the 23-25 range. They would be moved out of the poll after a couple of weeks once the major teams start to get sorted out a bit. This is just the AP's way to give ASU their props and slam scUM into the ground some more.

 

[cincibuck]

This gets Center (or is it Centre?) College's upset of Harvard back in the dark ages off of page one in the all time upset book.

It also shuts up a lot of folks (me for instance) who bitch about these deliberate mis matches that schools use to pad their records. UC putting it to Oregon State last night and Middle Tennessee putting 42 points on Louisville's defense doesn't hurt either. Looks like an interesting poll coming up this week. Notre Dame could become the first 0 - 2 team to break into the top 25 if they can keep it close at Happy Valley.

 

[DaddyBigBucks]

This gets Center (or is it Centre?) College's upset of Harvard back in the dark ages off of page one in the all time upset book.

It also shuts up a lot of folks (me for instance) who bitch about these deliberate mis matches that schools use to pad their records. UC putting it to Oregon State last night and Middle Tennessee putting 42 points on Louisville's defense doesn't hurt either. Looks like an interesting poll coming up this week. Notre Dame could become the first 0 - 2 team to break into the top 25 if they can keep it close at Happy Valley.

One of the realities of the Appy Factor is that it will be used for decades to justify the scheduling of I-aa teams.

Whether you think its reasonable or not, every discussion about schedule-strength for the next 50 years will contain a reference to this game.