Appalachian State shocker leads to AP poll adding lower-division schools
CBSSports.com wire reports
After pulling off one of the greatest upsets in college football history, Appalachian State is still shaking things up.
The Associated Press said Thursday that lower-division schools -- that means you, Mountaineers -- are now eligible for its 71-year-old poll.
"It's great they opened the door," Appalachian State coach Jerry Moore said from his office in Boone, N.C. "Certainly we're not going to be the No. 1 team in the country. We know that. We're not even going to be in the top 10. But if you have a win over a nice football team, I like that it's not out of the realm of possibility for a school like us to be one of the top 20 or 25 teams in the country."
Several AP voters expressed interest in putting Appalachian State on their ballots after a shocking 34-32 upset at then-No. 5 Michigan last weekend. But the poll guidelines, which mirrored the coaches' rankings conducted by USA Today, limited eligibility to teams competing in the former NCAA Division I-A, now known as the Football Bowl Subdivision.
The Mountaineers compete in the Football Championship Subdivision, known before this season as Division I-AA.
The AP decided to make the change because schools that show they can compete with big-time teams on the field should have a chance to be recognized with them in the Top 25, sports editor Terry Taylor said.
"Why not? The poll was always intended to measure teams that compete against each other, regardless of division, based solely on on-field performance," she said. "It was that way long before Division I was divided into I-A and I-AA in 1978."
One poll voter, Adam Van Brimmer, said he wanted to put Appalachian State at No. 25 after their win over the Wolverines, largely as a symbolic gesture. He might still do it next week, assuming the Mountaineers beat Division II Lenoir-Rhyne.
"If I have any openings in my poll, they would certainly be strongly considered," said Van Brimmer, who works for the Georgia-based Morris News Service.
In a previous job, he covered longtime Division I-AA powerhouse Georgia Southern, which, like Appalachian State, is a member of the Southern Conference.
"Having spent so much time watching those Georgia Southern teams, I'm sure the top teams in the Southern Conference are as good as many mid majors in the upper division," Van Brimmer said. "They're probably as good as anybody in the MAC (Mid-American Conference). They're probably better than most in the Sun Belt."
Joe Giglio of the News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., said he would have voted for the Mountaineers this week, though he never considered where to put them after being told they weren't eligible.
He's not sure if Appalachian State will get another chance to crack his Top 25 since the school doesn't face another big-time opponent, which affects strength of schedule. After Lenoir-Rhyne, the Mountaineers take on Northern Arizona before getting into their conference schedule.
