Appalachian Syracuse is hot! hot! hot!

If the Vegas oddsmakers to be believed, the biggest upset in college-football history was not the Michigan-Appalachian State game three weeks ago; it was the Louisville-Syracuse game this past Saturday!  The Orange was a 37-point underdog to the Cardinals -- one point more than the 36-point spread in the 1985 Oregon State-over-Washington stunner that is generally regarded by gambling types as the biggest upset ever.

Appy State, by contrast, was "only a 22-23 point underdog, depending on who you listen to," according to Brian Cook.  I'm not sure where he's getting those numbers, since there is generally no "official" point spread on games between I-A and I-AA teams.  But this article says Jeff Sagarin had Michigan as a 25-point favorite.  So whatever the exact spread (or would-be spread), I think it's fair to say it was (or would have been) less than 37.

And rightfully so, I'd argue. For all the histrionics, here and elsewhere, about the Appy State upset ("This is frogs raining from heaven. This is physically impossible"), the Mountaineers are a good team that just happens to play in a lower division; they would probably finish in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten, and they might win the ACC Coastal Division. Okay, maybe not, but you take my point: whether you call them I-A or I-AA, "Bowl Subdivision" or "Championship Subdivision," the reality is that Appalachian State is better than Syracuse.

None of which, of course, changes the fact that Michigan lost to Appalachian State. HAHAHAHAHA. (Pay no attention to the 38-0 drubbing of Notre Dame behind the curtain!)

Anyway, the broader question this brings to my mind is: how many more milestone games can college football possibly give us?  The last three seasons have been a veritable goldmine!  We've seen the biggest upset ever by point spread (Syracuse over Louisville, 2007), the first-ever Div. I-AA win over a ranked Div. I-A team (Appalachian State over #5 Michigan, 2007), the most consequential and utterly thrilling David-over-Goliath upset in bowl history (Boise State over Oklahoma, Fiesta Bowl, 2007), the biggest comeback in history (Michigan State over Northwestern, 2006), the biggest comeback in bowl history (Texas Tech over Minnesota, Insight Bowl, 2006), arguably the greatest championship game ever played (Texas over USC, 2006), and arguably the greatest game ever played, at least until the Boise-Oklahoma game (USC over Notre Dame, 2005) on arguably the greatest day in college-football history (October 15, 2005).  It's really getting a little excessive at this point.  Can college football possibly keep up this insane level of excitement?  Or are we in for a few boring years ahead, as karmic retribution?

Comments

[B. Minich]

So . . . what does this make the teams that LOST to the team that lost to Appalachian state? Because I'm trying to figure out where this puts Penn State, and I don't like it. Not that I didn't expect it. The only thing Appalachian State did was to give me some hope of beating Michigan this year, which was obviously misplaced.

Can you tell I'm not happy with the skunk-bears right now? The Nittany Lions have now dropped 9 straight games to the skunk-bears, which makes the Michigan game a game of dread every year.

[Ben Sloniker]

My wager is on karmic retribution...

But not until the end of this season. :-D

[David K.]

Karmic retribution would be a USC/LSU title game where the Trojan's smoke the Tigers for being left out of the title game a couple years back.

[Andrew]

I disagree. Oklahoma was the team that didn't belong after getting blown out by Kansas State in the Big 12 championship game. Karma came back and bit them in the ass the year after that in the Orange Bowl.

[David K.]

hmm true, i suppose its more karmic retribution then for the LoSUers claims that the USC national championship isn't valid