Bigger story: Appy State or Boston no-hitter?

Oops. The previous post is what I get for reading only one page of a three-page thread.

 

You want to lead with the Boston no-no? That's reasonable.

But, Jesus, the strike three, called, was the No. 1 play of the day at the very end of SportsCenter.

No-hitters happen twice a week ... Appalachian State is the biggest upset in my lifetime. Why wouldn't the blocked FG be No. 1.

I know it's not the biggest thing in the grand scheme of life but that struck me at awful.

 

Really?

 

Add month and year. They just stopped showing the highlights of Kordell Stewart's Hail Mary. We'll be watching the App-inators for a long time.

 

Well, no-hitters aren't exactly twice a week, but they don't have the Jesus-Budweiser-Christ! effect this game had, either.

 

I wondered this after last year's Fiesta Bowl, and I'll wonder it here: How big an upset was this?

Perceptionally, it's massive -- I-AA school from a town whose very name screams anonymity (Boone), more than 20 fewer scholarships than their opponent, never beaten a I-A team not named Wake Forest (and not last year's Wake, either), and they stroll into the Big House to play a legitimate national title contender, and not only win but a) lead most of the way and b) rally when they finally do fall behind. No other game (including the Fiesta Bowl) delivered the seismic shock this one did.

But in actuality? Not sure how big it really is. Appy won two straight I-AA titles and are strong favorites to make it three. From a talent perspective, they might be on par with a low-level bowl qualifier, maybe an East Carolina. Not that you could drop them into, say, the ACC and expect them to do much better than 2-9 or 3-8 with what they have, because at some point depth is going to be an issue. But they should be able to beat a I-A a few times a year and, if everything goes their way, it shouldn't be unheard of to beat a top 25 team. Maybe No. 5 in a stadium filled with 100,000 of their fans is beyond the pale, but I'd say Northwestern or Indiana beating Michigan there would be a more surprising result for those paying attention as opposed to those who can't make the distinction between Appy and Winston-Salem State or Presbyterian.

 

The no-hitters hyperbole aside, my thoughts exactly.

 

3 words:


Big Ten Network

 

I don't know, they hyped it pretty heavily throughout the day, even on the SC in question, and led with it this morning. It explains the lack of a live cutaway, though. I don't think they'd intentionally put the blocked FG behind the last out of the no-hitter just to spite the BTN or throw a hissy fit; I don't think even they're that petty.

FWIW: Daily in town gave most of the top 2/3rds to the two state I-As, put the no-hitter and the local minor league team in playoff contention on the bottom and teased Appy. I might have switched the Boston and Appy placement, but for this market the rest of it was a legit call.

 

The morning papers report.
Local daily led with Big state U football package (gamer and column), regional college gamer and, wait for it, the Cowboys coach who got suspended?!?!?!?
Refers to Appy, no-hitter and a local story.
Other paper had Appy and Michigan out front and it looks like they did some rearranging to get seven stories out front. More for the no-hitter, I suspect, since that paper usually has the best top 25 game out front.
I also think they have a no-hitter rule, as in no-no's always go on the cover.

 

Why do no-nos always go on the cover if there are better/more stories of iknterest to your readers?

No-hitter (Page 4--lead baseball page) and Appy St. (Page 7, lead CFB page) both made the reefer rail on our cover because we had 4 "major-league" staff stories/column on the cover that were more relevant to our area.

 

I'll repeat what I said, maybe in this thread maybe another. Two years ago, when Appy won its first of two straight titles, Kansas beat them 38-7. Kansas thumped the best 1-AA team that year and was the Fort Worth Bowl champion. That's as lower-tiered of a bowl game as there is.

Don't underestimate this upset. It was huge. So huge it cannot be compared. Bring up Chaminade, but at least Chaminade played on its home court. Bring up USA/Soviet Union hockey, and at least the USA had a rowdy home crowd.

Other upsets, like USA/England soccer and Soviet Union/USA 1972 basketball, were on neutral venues.

Putting everything in perspective:
1. No 1-AA team had ever beaten an AP ranked team.
2. Michigan is the winningest football program in 1-A history.
3. Michigan is ranked No. 5.
4. There were more than 100,000 rabid fans pulling for Michigan.

I'm not saying it's the biggest upset in history of sports, but damn, until another 1-AA beats a team like this, it's up there with David beating the shit out of Goliath.