It seems that Michigan isn’t the most overrated team in the NCAA. With their defeat of Notre Dame, Michigan has proven they are only the second most overrated team in college football. I guess our friends in South Bend have finally proven they are number 1 in something.

Michigan loses again. This time, they lost to a real team. They lost big. Bigger than ever. To say that Michigan is hurting, is an understatement.

Can anyone say “Big 9 Conference.” Don’t worry, running back Mike Hart promises that they will win next week against Notre Dame. Well, they might have a shot as they are playing the second most overrated team in college football.

The University of Michigan was defeated by Appalachian State, 34-32. Who is Appalachian state and what are they doing playing U of M, who was #5 ranked? In case you are living in box, it is a new trend for college football powerhouses to play significantly lesser ranked teams for the first game or two of the season. Big wins help hype up the fans and, in turn, brings more money to the program. For the smaller team (or deadmeat as we shall call them), the loss does little to hurt them and they get the chance to share some of the box office revenue from the big school. It may be their only chance to get some national TV coverage.

Similar recent games have had huge lopsided results, such as #10 Louisville beating Murray State, 73-10. Both Appalachian State and Murray State are small enough that they are in completely separate division from the bigger teams and have different championships. Even though Appalachian state is the past I-AA division champion, they have no business playing U of M during a game that counts. The BCS championship often comes down to which teams had the tougher schedule. Having I-A teams beat on a I-AA team or two shouldn’t even count. But…occasionally David beats Goliath.

Why do I, someone who only watches baseball care about this? Part of it is the trainwreck factor. Part of it is that I can laugh at my friends who are die hard Michigan fans. There is a small component of rooting for the underdog. However, most of it has to do with money and unintended consequenses. I like it because the blatant attempt to cash in has blown up in Michigan’s face. With this loss, it is unlikely, even if they go undefeated for the rest of the season, that they can contend for the national championship. Their national ranking will likely drop significantly. They might not even be invited to a Bowl game (that is unlikely, however, since Bowl invitation have as much to do with TV revenue as they have to do with quality football). They may get less TV time and sales of Michigan related goods may fall. This loss will end up costing Michigan a huge amount of revenue for the year; probably more than they would have gained from a huge blow out.

Hail! Hail! to Michigan…Ooops

Update 9/4: Guess which team was not in this week’s AP rankings…