1 Happy St

Have you heard the Michigan.org commercials on the radio? They really sell that state. Who doesn't want to hang out with 3,200 miles of fresh water shoreline? Every time I hear that commercial (which is every 4 minutes or so), I want to steer my car towards I-94 East and head to one of their 11,000 inland lakes and streams. But Jill and I had a debate on who the voiceover in the commercial is. She said it's Tim Allen, I said it's the dad from Home Alone.

Now I'll admit, my argument wasn't exactly fool-proof. Mr. McCallister has no ties to Michigan whatsoever. At least none that I know of. And we all know about Tim Allen's ties. He's from Detroit, he based Home Improvement on one of the suburbs. Hell, he even wore a Grand Valley State sweatshirt in one of the episodes. I know it, Grand Valley! So even as I was saying it's the Home Alone guy, I knew there was a good chance Jill was right. Turns out she was. I looked it up. It's Tim Allen.

I hate admitting defeat.

In case you hadn't heard, the University of Michigan football team lost on Saturday to Appalachian State University, 34-32. The storied Michigan team, which has won more college football games than any other school, began the game ranked 5th in the nation and was considered a contender for a Bowl Championship Series game, if not the National Championship game itself. With many returning starters, Michigan was set to improve on their 2006 season which saw them lose only once in the regular season en route to the Rose Bowl.

That's all gone now.

After one game, Michigan now finds itself as the laughingstock of the entire sports world by losing to a school that most people had never heard of in front of their home fans. I was one of those fans and I will tell you that the walk back to the car after the game on Saturday was a true walk of shame.

To put it in perspective, the entire population of Boone, NC, where Appalachian State University is located, is 13,328. It would take EIGHT Boone, NCs to fill up Michigan Stadium. In actuality, there were only several hundred Mountaineer fans in attendance, but their celebration was loud enough to fill the Big House as the 109,000+ Michigan fans exited in stunned silence.

Under the current BCS system, a single loss almost certainly eliminates a team from contention for the National Championship. One can easily conclude that a single loss to an unknown team has wiped out any hope that Michigan ever had for 2007. National sports media has already labeled it the biggest upset in the history of college football. I can't say I disagree with them. It is simply an embarrassing time to be a Michigan fan.

To be fair to the kids at Appalachian State, they played a remarkable game, and by all accounts, they are a very good team. ASU is the two-time defending Division I-AA National Champion, meaning for the last two seasons, they were the best of the schools you'd never heard of. Which begs the question of Michigan: If you are going to schedule a "warm-up game" against a supposed cream puff opponent, why would you schedule it against the best one? Never mind that a team of Michigan's stature has no business losing to a team like ASU, why even take the risk? The risk far outweighs the reward of winning a game against the likes of Appalachian State.

Michigan now has the arduous task of preparing for a game against the Oregon Ducks, with Notre Dame and Penn State after that. It's going to be a very long season.