If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

“AND APPALACHIAN STATE HAS JUST KNOCKED OFF THE MICHIGAN WOLVERINES TO PULL OFF THE GREATEST UPSET IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL HISTORY! OHH, OHH, OHHHHHHHH!”

Or something like that. The Appalachian State play by play guy got a little excited.

It’s understandable. As records show it’s seldom that a I-AA team (which is now called Division I - Football Championship Subdivision, FCS for short) seldom upsets a reputable Division I team.

But it’s seldom that top 25 rated Division I teams schedule the two time defending FCS national champion. Like Appalachian State! If Michigan, or any other Division I team, thought that game would be a pushover for them they don’t follow the different classifications of college football much at all. Michigan couldn’t have possibly scheduled a more dangerous opponent for their home opener.

You see the bully on the block has nothing to gain by kicking sand in the face of the meek and mild.

Division I teams are supposed to welcome an underfunded and understaffed FCS program with limited facilities and scholarship allotments to town, say some nice things about them, give them a good ass whipping, say some more nice things about them, cut them a big check (which is a bargain for the home team because they pay them peanuts compared to D-I rivals) for taking such a beating, and send them home to compete at their own level.

“At least that’s how it’s suppose to work!” says the bully.

But upsets in college football do occur and they usually occur when the bully arrogantly underestimates the firepower of a formidable opponent. And Appalachian State is every bit a formidable opponent.

The media guru’s would have you believe that Appalachian State is a “relative unknown” in the college football world. How could Michigan or any other big time football juggernaut possibly lose to the likes of them?

Really?

Let’s see now. The Division I Football Championship Subdivision of which Appalachian State is a member has an athletic scholarship limit of 65 full ride equivalents per institution. This scholarship consists of tuition/fees, books, and room and board. It’s officially called a “grant-in-aid” by the NCAA.

Division I teams have a scholarship limit of 85 full ride “grant in aid” athletic scholarships. But 25-30 (or more) of these guys can’t play Division I football anyway and would be doing well to be playing at the Division II or III levels. So the margin in talent between Division I and the upper tier FCS isn’t as great as people might think.

Now most FCS teams are not in the same class with Appalachian State who is way ahead of the curve. Appalachian State could compete just fine, thank you, in most Division I conferences. However, most FCS teams could not and a few are beaten annually by upper level Division II teams with half or less of the FCS scholarship allocations.

Division II football is funded at considerable lower levels. The full ride equivalents for institutions in most conferences is 36. Some Division II conferences limit this total to 28 to give lesser funded schools a better chance to compete. It “levels the playing field” so to speak but many institutions at this level compete on less than 20 scholarships. And many of these scholarships are divided up to give more kids at least some financial aid. Guess which programs win the Division II national championship every year? It’s always an institution with a well established 36 scholarship football program.

But back to the D-I scenario.

Higher level Division I programs do have more talent, bigger stadiums, better facilities, more check writing alumni, and much better overall resources than the lower levels of college football. There’s no avoiding that fact.

They also have an ample supply of smoke and mirrors. And they have much to lose by losing to a “relative unknown.” Should they slip on that arrogant banana peel of hype they just might find themselves taking the walk of shame back to the Taj Mahal, i.e. locker room.

Michigan knows of such a slip and such a walk. It was groundhog day the very next week when Oregon kicked the entire sandlot in their faces. But then that’s how you bully a bully.

Give the Appalachian State players their due. They beat Michigan and won the last two FCS National Championships where it counts the most. And that’s on the football field! No rankings needed for these guys. They make their own.

There’s always a greatest upset in college football every year. But the greatest in history? Nah! Michigan should have known better.

It’s always great to be the underdog with no chance to win and pull it off. Nothing could be ‘fina’ than to be in Boone North Carolina!

Help a kid pull off an upset today! It’s a Win, Win!

Ike

Popularity: 100% [?]

Remember as kids how we would use the chant, “Liar, liar, pants on fire”, when one of our buddies would get caught telling a big whopper? It was harmless yet still reinforced to the guilty party, “Don’t lie!” Kids did a lot more self governing back in those days.

Today I’m not so sure a kid wouldn’t get sent to the principals office and expelled for being a bully if he/she made this statement to another kid that just lied to them. After all the kid that lied could suffer traumatic psychological damage for being chastised by a peer bout their lying. And we certainly couldn’t condone that now could we? Political correctness at it’s finest!

It amazes and saddens me at how easily people lie today. Not just in athletics but society as a whole. Lying has become a part of everyday life and used for whatever purpose the liar chooses.

But if you call someone out for lying to you then you’re immediately insulting the liar’s integrity for lying to you. You’re supposed to take being lied to and pretend you weren’t lied to at all. Trust me!

There always seems to be major news stories and controversies of high profile athletes getting into trouble they can’t get out of. And most of them attempt to lie their way out of trouble as a first line of defense. Of course they have highly paid attorneys to help them lie their way out of a jam. And if the lie isn’t convincing enough they plea bargain.

Michael Vick has been in the news of late, indicted on dog fighting charges. His initial plea to these charges was “not guilty” and further explained to the world (through his lawyer, of course) how he loved animals and wasn’t at all involved in such a dastardly thing as dog fighting.

Well, as the world turns and three of his indicted dog fighting buddies pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution (don’t snitch now, boys!), Mr. Vick has had a sudden change of heart about his plea. Now he has agreed to plead guilty to dog fighting charges. Who let the dogs out?!….Whooo? Whoo? Whoo? Whoo? Whoo?

It’s all coming back to him now! Does Michael have a history of concussions? Amnesia? Opps, HIPPA law would never allow that to be revealed. My bad!

When it comes to the subject of dog fighting Michael Vick is a liar. And he would have continued lying his way through this mess if his defense team could have come up with a better lying strategy.

But Michael Vick is just one of many in the athletic world that have been over coddled, over catered to, and over paid for for so long their character and integrity takes a serious dive in the gutter. How does a high profile guy with a 130 million dollar salary get wrapped up in dog fighting? Real estate seems a much better (and legal) investment to me but I’ll never know either way.

Michael would have been way better off picking up a safer more leisurely hobby like… fly fishing! Just last month I bet (don’t tell the NCAA!) a good friend of mine a six pack that I would catch a bigger brown trout than he did. We used the honor system to determine the winner of this high stakes event. And I beat him by a whopping 2 inches! Which proves that I’m a better fly fisherman than he is. And it also proves that you can never trust people that like to fish.

They’re liars!

Help a kid to not lie today! It’s a Win, Win!

Ike

Popularity: 60% [?]