Year in review: This season is one for the ages
The 11 biggest stories in college football this year in no particular order (we just couldn't hold it to the traditional 10):
Upsets
Enough to make you swallow your tongue.
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| Pitt's upset of West Virginia wraps up a strange regular season. (Getty Images) |
We'll explain why down below, but upsets were the reason this was the greatest season ever. From Michigan on opening day to West Virginia on the final night, no one was safe.
For the first time a two-loss team (LSU) is playing for the national championship in the BCS era. Both title game participants have been No. 1 twice. It was easier handling live eels than being ranked No. 2.
Take your pick on the biggest jaw dropper: Louisiana-Monroe (over Alabama), Stanford (over USC), Florida Atlantic (over Minnesota) or Appalachian State (over Michigan).
What's weirder: The winners of those games finished a combined 21-11 after the upsets. The losers are 14-14 pending bowl games.
Appalachian State
The Mountaineers get their own mention because the Michigan win wasn't a fluke. Jerry Moore's bunch was faster, looser and better prepared.
They changed the landscape of the game, in a way. Lloyd Carr might still be the Wolverines' coach if not for the result. Because of the win, the AP adjusted its voting rules. All sub-I-A schools are now eligible for its top 25. Never mind that I-AA, II and III all have their own polls.
App State also followed up the Michigan win with another Division I-AA title. In the process, quarterback Armanti Edwards made himself a Heisman candidate for 2008.
Don't forget the school's creepy, Up With People recruiting video that made the YouTube rounds:
Florida
Can't say enough about the dominant program in the football-crazy state, which should be in the top five again to begin '08.
