[iggymcfly]

Yeah, doesn't that make the other case. So the lower-tier of the Big Ten was 2-3 vs. I-AA schools last year, playing either all 5 games at home or at least 4 out of 5. That would support the point that the Top 15 or so I-AA teams are about even the bottom four teams in the Big Ten. Meanwhile, Appalachian State isn't just another top team, they're the very best in I-AA, coming off back to back national titles. Based on the information you gave, Appalachian State should be comparable to at least a 4-4 Big Ten team since they have won 23 in a row against I-AA opponents and didn't have any one point "close calls" during that stretch either.

Now, I'm not saying that ASU's quite that good as the Big Ten had an unusually bad year against I-AA teams and the Minnesota/NDSU game in particular was a huge fluke. However, saying App. State is only better than 15 I-A teams is ludicrous. They're easily better than anyone in the Sun Belt and are better than half of the other mid-major schools as well. The last time a team came to I-A directly following a I-AA championship was Marshall in 1997 and they went 10-3 and won the MAC. I think if you give ASU a full schedule in any mid-major conference this season, they'd definitely finish above .500 and could compete seriously for the title in any mid-major except for the WAC or MWC.

I'd say that Appalachian State probably belong somewhere in the 40-50 range of D-I programs. They're definitely better than bottom-dwelling BCS teams such as Indiana, Stanford, and Mississippi State and are likely better than some of the middling programs like Texas Tech, Virginia and Cincinnatti as well. It's still a huge upset for them to beat Michigan and it terms of significance, it's the biggest upset in NCAAF history, but in terms of just being surprising, it's less of an upset than Temple over Virginia Tech and less of an upset than an Illinois win over Ohio State would have been last year had the Illini held on.