Hail to the Victors? Not so much.

 The University of Michigan, the winningest team in the history of college football, ranked number 5 in the nation, became the first ranked team EVER to lose to a division 1-AA team... and they lost at home 34-32.

  Now I'll freely admit my bias: I attended Michigan State University and Spartans hate Wolverines and visa versa. However, this event was as great a day for pairity in college football as any I can recall. Appalachian State was number one team in Div I-AA as the defending nation champion so we are not talking about chopped liver here. This was a team that has played together for 4 years - as few jump to the NFL from I-AA, much less leave early and they played like a team in the truest sense of the word.

  After the travesty of undefeated Boise State not even playing in the national chamionship game last year I hope the old gaurd of pollsters are paying attention. The talent pool in college football is deeper than it has ever been and teams need to be ranked according to there performance, not according to their history or the size of their TV contracts.

   I hope everyone outside of Ann Arbor is rejoicing today, as the Mountaineers from tiny Appalachian State had every opportunity to go away and let Michigan complete their come back but they fought to the bitter end - denying two Michigan two point conversions and blocking two UM field goals all in the fourth quarter. If you haven't seen them yet you should try and catch the highlights of this game whether you care about football specifically or not this game represented the best side of sports and team competition.

   The only down side to this? Well, my guess is it will be some time before the Mountaineers will be invited back to "The Big House" - I'm thinking that they are fine with that.