So What Happened To Michigan?

If you have been living under a rock for the past 72 hours, then you have not heard about Michigan losing to Appalachian State. Why is this a big deal you wonder? Well other than the sheer embarrassment of losing on your home field, 109,000+ fans strong, with the critical eyes of the NCAA football community watching, or the many punchlines ESPN announcers will pull from it in years to come, the reasons are two fold:

1) There has never been a tumble as far off the charts as Michigan's since the Associated Press (AP) Poll expanded to 25 teams in 1989. The Wolverines were removed from their #5 seed and booted completely out of the Top 25, AND

2) Until this weekend, no Division I-AA team had beaten a ranked team in the AP Poll from 1989-2006, and it's unlikely that it happened after Division-I subdivisions were created in 1978.

But, the boys from Boone N.C. are not exactly nobodies. They have won 15 straight games, the longest streak alive in the nation, and they are also the two-time defending champions from former Division I-AA, now the Football Championship Subdivision. The Mountaineers have been favored to three-peat for the title again this year, and the win over Michigan gives them more fuel for their fire.

Word from Michigan State, and even Ohio State, who are both arch rivals of Michigan, is that people were leaving their opening season games to check out the unprecedented events occuring in "The Big House."

If you are a Michigan fan, I would hold onto that memorabilia for the time being and catalog it in iTaggit. Maybe they'll rise from the ashes and return triumphant at the end of the season. It is only one loss when stored in the records, and I know I always appreciate a good underdog story.