FCS Expansion

Bowl Teams Might Want to Get Outside of the Box

I've spent the week trying to avoid commenting on the Appalachian St. upset of Michigan. KU fans are all too familiar with the feeding frenzy that occurs when you are the victim of an improbable upset. There's no need to pile on, but I did start to think about what it means in the overall picture. Is it really that shocking? The Mountaineers are a team with playoff experience. They understand what it means to win or go home. Over the past two seasons, Appy St. has played in (and won) eight post-season games. Michigan has played in two, neither of which were elimination games. I mean c'mon, it was just a matter of time before the "Championship" division surpassed the "Bowl" nobility.

So, now I think we may see some "bowl" level teams try to make the jump into the championship division. I mean it makes sense to want to move to a division where all teams have an equal shot at post-season play. The WAC, the MAC, Conference USA and the Sun Belt could make a power-play move right now. It'd be a pretty good recruiting ploy -- "if you want to make it to the NFL, come get some real playoff experience."

Or maybe we should just combine the whole thing into one big super division. Playoff proponents always talk about a eight to twelve teams facing off in "D-I" bracket. Forget about it ... try 242 teams battling to get into a 64-team playoff.