This week just keeps getting better.
This may mean we will have two teams called The Mountaineers in a Top 25 Poll for the first time ever! Daniel Boone, rejoice!
This definitely makes me knowing that there may have been a money line on the Michigan game (somewhere out there on the internet) feel slightly less aggravating. I might have only bet $10, but I'm sure it would have paid me about 25 times that!
Back to the Poll - I knew when we beat Michigan, it would alter the way alot of people thought about I-AA/FCS football, but I didn't think it would start the process of blurring the line completely. We now appear to be moving back to the way things were 30 years ago...where every team was just "Division I", not I-A, I-AA, or some kind of subdivision.
While I am excited at the idea of Appalachian appearing in the Top 25 alongside schools like Georgia Tech and Tennessee (current denizens in spots 20-25), I'm forced to wonder what this will ultimately mean. If App can be ranked in the top 25, and manages to finish 15-0, why can't they go to a bowl game. Conversely, why can't a team like Boise State or TCU, who are likely to get perpetually shut-out of the BCS National Championship game, decide to go play in the playoffs instead?
Ultimately, since the AP Poll is no longer used to determine BCS spots, it may not matter. But, if it somehow causes a complete elimination of subdivisions, it could spell the end for many of the smaller Division I schools who have neither the resources, nor the fanbase, to compete in a DI free-for-all.
Regardless of what happens - Appalachian may organically succeed in doing something that the legislators have only had limited success in doing - fundamentally changing the way college football is structured.
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