The CSN Way: Upsets?
By Chuck Burton, The CSN Way Columnist


The legend, pretty much, has been written. Two years ago, schools from a far away subdivision formerly known as I-AA only scheduled the Royalty of college football every once in a great while - only for a six-figure guarantee check, of course, and the “smaller” schools never, ever expected to win. Then Jerry Moore, Armanti Edwards, Dexter Jackson and the rest of the Appalachian State Mountaineers turned the world upside down with an upset for the ages. You know the story: Jackson’s 68 yard touchdown pass to “shush” the crowd, the Michigan radio announcers at halftime saying, “Are you sitting down?", Edwards leading Appalachian State on a 69 yard drive to retake the lead in the closing minutes (ending in a Julian Rauch field goal), and that famous missed blocking assignment that allowed all-American Corey Lynch to block Michigan’s attempt to salvage the win in the closing second.

It was an FCS Miracle in Michigan - but to most casual football fans it was a once-in-a-lifetime upset, one that never will be repeated. As far as the larger college football world is concerned, there only ever was one FCS over FBS upset in college football history, and the time for that has passed.

But FCS fans know this isn’t true. Not only have there been many, many wins over FBS teams in the 30+ year history of I-AA/FCS football, there will be a couple more this weekend to add to the legend. In fact, most of the FBS scalps that FCS teams have gotten over the years could almost not be considered upsets at all.

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