Letters to the Editor
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The Main Problem
With "didn't take it seriously" or "looked past them" is that these guys are working and training year round. For most of them football is the most important thing in their lives including academics, family, and girlfriends. They have 11 or 12 total games per year and 6 or 7 before the home crowd.
And using that excuse for the first game is particularly unbearable. They've been working their asses off all spring summer and fall in anticipation of it.
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I Think It May Be
Some kind of unwritten treaty between fans of the big programs----When I say my team was wasn't taking an opponent seriously if you will take me seriously, I'll do the same for you. We can rationalize all of our defeats that way except when we play each other. Then it will be the refs or injuries or whatever else we can dream up..
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Cupcakes
I don't think loading the first few games of the college football season with cupcake opponents is corrupt or whatever because college football requires that any team hoping for a national championship be undefeated. Like it or not, college football is the only sport I can think of that essentially requires its champion to be undefeated. Every single game of the season must be won but college ball has no preseason. The cupcake filled non-conference early games are simply a way of providing a low risk preseason for the elite teams. I am fine with that.
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Money meet Mouth
For all of those who missed the chance to see the Mountaineers beat Michigan here is your chance to repeat the miracle.
Troy is traveling to (soon to be) #5 Florida this Saturday.
Anyone willing to shell out $14.95 for the pay per view event of the century?
Troy University
Location: Troy, Ala.
Founded: 1887
Enrollment: 26,880
Colors: Cardinal, Silver and Black
Stadium: Movie Gallery Veterans
Capacity: 30,000
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Overreacting to a Fluke
Speaking as one of those who teased King about his quote, I have to say that I agree with his conclusion that the miraculous Appalachian State victory over Michigan doesn't refute his point, which I also agree with. Those of you whom are talking about how people should've anticipated that Appalachian State was gonna be a tough opponent for Michigan are being absurd. I don't care how many I-AA-or-used-to-be-I-AA championships App State has won, they're still I-AA! Cinderellas like that don't happen in college football, as evidenced by the fact that no I-AA school had ever beaten a ranked I-A school before Saturday. One of you dredged up the tired "if any given Sunday" quote, which is in no way applicable here. Yes, on any given SUNDAY, when professional teams of roughly equivalent size, speed and talent meet, sometimes "upsets" occur, but the Cards beating the Bears or Colts is not even close to what just happened over the weekend. Boise State beating Oklahoma isn't close! They're both 1-A! I agree with King: One fluke does not a fact change, and it's a fact that there is no impetus for the power schools to schedule patsies, therefore we don't get nearly enough Tennessee-Cals, and way too many Oklahoma-North Texases.
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More to CFB than the BCS
There is winning your conference, even if it doesn't put you in a BCS bowl. There is beating your hated rival. Going to a bowl game, even if it isn't the national championship. There is walking across campus on a crisp autumn morning, past hordes of tail-gaters, anticipation surging through your veins, even for a game that doesn't match two Top 10 teams.
Perhaps this was an opportunity to take a look at Div. I-AA (or whatever they are calling it now). You said some time ago that you wanted to pay more attention to the little sports guys, and here's an excellent chance. Instead you dismiss them as an anomaly that certainly merit no further attention: if it isn't for the BCS, who cares, right?
You don't like college football, we get it. But don't try to convince us not to like it either. This half-column is a petulant act of defiance, of denial. A surge when all around you are saying retreat. The BCS is a joke, but if you aren't interested in looking beyond that, just write about baseball for the next sixty days, and we'll enjoy our football without your scoldings, thank you.
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More on Overreaction
I continue to see invalid comparisons of App State-Michigan to other upsets. The fact is: USC's third string would beat Appalachian State by 60. DeSean Jackson would take at least two punt returns back for touchdowns. Even Notre Dame (I'm a suffering fan) might've scored a touchdown. All this upset proves is that Lloyd Carr is incompetent, and should be fired.
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It Could Be As Simple As
The fans projecting themselves on to the team. The fans didn't take it seriously. They came out to get drunk and hog down the buffet out in the lot before the game, check out the tits and ass and watch the rout. They knew nothing whatsoever about the other team other than their name sounded funny.
Then 4 hours later they have gas and a headache and are face to face with their own stupidity. So their team didn't take it seriously and their coach needs to be impaled on a skewer and slowly spun over a coal fire.
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FaulknerJr
"One fluke does not a fact change, and it's a fact that there is no impetus for the power schools to schedule patsies, therefore we don't get nearly enough Tennessee-Cals, and way too many Oklahoma-North Texases."
In 2005 and 2006 Oklahoma opened up losing to TCU and beating UAB 24-17.
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this is silly argument
There was only one game this week where one top-25 team faced another. Among the other 23 teams, only two of them lost. The others won by an average of 35 points. I don't how anyone can dispute King's claim that that college football shedule is packed with upsets.
Also, King wasn't wrong about anything. The fact that App. St. won doesn't change the fact that no one (including those at Michigan who scheduled the game) really thought they had much of a chance, which was what King claimed. It was an upset. That means the game was won by the team that's generally considered inferior. These (very) rare upsets aren't much of an excuse for all the blowouts that occurred this past weekend.