News & Observer | newsobserver.com | 2008 NCAA Men's Bracket

So I guess your formula suggest that...since Wake bear Ole Miss then Wake should have no problem beating the Gators?

Why am I not seeing anything about ECU stinking it up the last 2 games, where's your articles about State getting beat. Again!

PRICK!

I guess Duke is going to smack North Carolina this year since the Blue Devils smoked JMU while North Carolina barely got by McNeese State and, frankly, was outplayed both ways on the line of scrimmage in that game and prevailed only because of a monumental individual effort by Brandon Tate. I mean, since we're comparing performances and all. Duke did a whole heck of a lot better against the team that's ranked #2 in FCS right now than UNC did against the team that's ranked #6. Too bad for Duke it doesn't really work that way.

I am a senior journalism major at Appalachian State. I've covered and been to all games and the national championships and have followed ASU since my freshman year.

The fact that you would try to use JMU to make the case for Duke being better than ASU is absurd. Yes, Duke beat JMU. Yes, JMU beat ASU. Yes, ASU squandered a 21-0 lead. That's the truth.

Have you watched ASU play from your perch or do you just continue to look down on us? If you look at last year's playoffs the same thing happened against Richmond - we were just able to right the ship and move on with a win. We lost a lot of people - we're a young team this year they don't have the killer mentality like previous years.

That's not my point, though. If you want to say Duke > ASU. Why not go to THEIR administration and THEIR AD and have them set up a game with ASU? I would guarantee that Jay Sutton and Charlie Cobb would be glad to set up the game. They have enough trouble finding opponents as it is.

Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said last year that no team wants to play ASU because when you play at 1-AA team - you would like to sit your starters for the second half. Against Appalachain you can't rely on that happening. That was his belief as to why Duke, UNC, NC State and Wake would not play ASU.

So before you go on and continue to bash ASU and my school. How about we let this settle on the field. I would guarantee ASU would put on a better show and give Duke fans a chance to see what a football team actually looks like.

its cool that your oblivious of the fcs and follow the division your school played in. as someone who follows both, trust me there is no comparison for the level of intensity come playoffs.

...and why you feel the need to belittle it is a mystery to me. One would hope that a journalist employed by a significant southern paper would be above messageboard smack, but you clearly are mired in the "in-your-face" mentality so prevalent among sports fans today.

Did you happen to take in the NC State-W&M game? If you did, and weren't impressed by how the Tribe played, then you shouldn't be covering sports at all. The Tribe, by the way, was 2-6 in the CAA last year.

JP, This is the first article of yours I have read and I don't really understand what you are trying to accomplish with your article. At first you take a light stab at App State and their loss to JMU. Then through your responses to your readers' comments you begin to harshly criticize App State and all FCS fans about their conference's inferiority to FBS. If your point is to state that FBS teams are better than FCS teams, that is nothing new. Ignoring the point several commenters have made about the fallibility of the transitive property applied to football, through a variety of reasons (more scholarships, bigger budgets, always home games, etc) FBS teams have a massive advantage over FCS teams when they take the field. When you think about the disadvantages for FCS teams it is surprising they ever win over FBS, even Duke. If you followed that JMU/DUKE game you would know that it was deadlocked until the second half and then Duke started to pull away. Any FCS fan will tell you that is the normal pattern in a FBS/FCS game. The FCS teams can compete for awhile but the disadvantage of having fewer scholarship players becomes obvious, especially in the heat of the summer when most of the FBS/FCS matchups occur. Take into account Mickey Matthews well-known passive attitude toward FBS games and a much-improved possibly bowl-bound Duke team it's not surprising JMU lost. However, most FCS fans know all this stuff and since your article's intended audience appears to be FCS fans please tell me what was your point? Because if it is what is appears to be, childish teasing and disrespect for an entire subdivision and Duke football, you appear to be an incredibly unprofessional, juvenile, and ignorant to the sport.

I like how my comment was erased. Your a <EDITTED OUT>.

The only reason I can fathom why a fan of FBS would be taunting fans of an FCS team is because that FBS fan has some kind of inferiority complex about their favorite program. That person also possesses those ugly traits that give rise to grotesque coaches salaries, "Communications" and "General Studies" majors tailored for non-student NFL aspirants, and the need for rules and regulations that make the Federal tax code look like casual reading.

I was born and bred north of Hillsborough and faithfully attended UNC football games as a child and teen with my UNC alumnus father. When the time came for me to go to college, I went to The Citadel. In those four years, I learned what real college football was all about. I'm not talking about wins and losses, Sagariin rankings, or how many times my team has beaten your team. I am talking about the realm of the true student-athlete, who stays for four years and plays for the love of his school and the admiration of the fans, while actually getting a meaning ful college degree. I suspect that the only purer form of this would be in the the Ivy League, and that's about it. The only times I have attended FBS games since then was when my Alma Mater scheduled one. If you want to get a glimpse of everything that is good and pure in college football, without the money, the thugs looking for the brass NFL ring, the coaches paid ten times as much as the best professor on campus, then I would suggest actually attending a FCS game. I would suggest ASU-The Citadel this October, or ASU-Wofford on Halloween. Furman-Wofford or Elon-ASU would be good bets this year, as well. You'll see real students playing real football, and you won't need binoculars.

The comment abouth the " The Far Side" cartoon is pretty accurate concerning this whole dialogue. Duke and any ACC school should win most games against the FCS. Twenty more scholarships is big plus and add to that the advantage of greater resources due to all the TV packages and larger fan bases the advantages just gets greater. All that being said, the football at the top level of !-AA or FCS is still very good with a lot of talent. Let's just say that App would play Duke or any other ACC team at any time and take their chances, nothing wrong or to be ashamed of about that.

With the loss to JMU I still like App's abilitiy to win against Duke of most of the ACC, last year, this year, or next year. This does not mean we would win the majority or even any of the games but we would make a good showing none the less. I think the ACC coaches would agree to this statement.

Touting the great ACC must be getting pretty tough these days so continue on with your bully tactics. Go Apps.

First, let me state that I am a native of Boone and have followed App St FB since I was a child. I have seen the years that Watauga HS could have beaten App (1978-79) and the recent success under Coach Moore. I could not be more happy for the University, Coach Moore, the Alumni, and students. However, let's be realistic here! For all the App fans that want to rant about their current superiority over the in-state ACC schools, if you REALLY want in the argument, then go to your administration and AD and push to move to a FBS conference. I'm not sure that it is something you want to do. The glory days would be OVER! One could look at the success of USF moving up, but they DO reside in FL and have a great talent base from which to recruit and Tampa's Raymond James Stadium to play home games. Just take a look at Marshall. They used to whip up on SC foes and wanted to be a big boy. What did that get them. ASU...stay where you are, continue to kick butt, be thankful that Jerry Moore wanted to stay in Boone, and be happy with who you are...a powerhouse in the FCS. Stop the whining about not playing UNC because it does make you look like you have an inferiority complex. The ACC is no where near as weak as you make it out to be... The conference may not be the SEC or BIG 12 or Pac-10, but it is not as lowly as the SoCon.

Go App...keep on kicking butt and win #4!!

"You lost to a team that lost to Duke. Out of all the comments, I still haven't seen that refuted yet. "
Obviously. but does it mean anything?NO (other than giving you a reason to smack talk FCS fans)
Michigan lost to to a team that lost to Georgia Southern (Us)
It doesn't mean Georgia Southern is a better team than Michigan by any means...

JP, you can toot your transitive victory horn all you want, the fact is that Duke, UNC, NC State, and even Wake are all STILL afraid to schedule us. Were looking for a 2009 Opponent. Id love for App to get a chance to settle it on the field with Duke or UNC particularly. UNC almost losing to Mcneese St. shows we could have taken them to the wire, likely beating them.

At least even with us losing to JMU having a playoff keeps us in the running to still win our National Championship, something all these local ACC teams plus ECU are already out of the running for completely for(besides Wake).

Hmmm....Duke lost to Northwestern this year.

In 2007 Northwestern lost to New Hampshire (FCS school). JMU beat New Hampshire in 2007 41-24.

In 2007 Delaware (FCS school) beat Navy.
In 2007 Navy beat Duke.
In 2007 Navy beat Notre Dame

In 2006 Richmond (FCS school) beat Duke 13-0. JMU beat Richmond in 2006 27-10.

You have no logic.

Hey JPG and the rest of you idiots,

It's called the Football Championship Subdivision... not 1-AA..get used to it....FCS is easier to say than 1-AA...most people who are mildly intelligent know what FCS and BCS stand for .....suggestion to the 1-A big boys (BCS) ....adopt a playoff system to determine a true National Champion...then you can compare apples and oranges or whatever it is that you're trying to do.....out

Only an ACC football fan would use the transitive property in college sports. This was JMUs superbowl, and they played an amazing 2nd half. Props to them. We have a lot of questions this year, in fact we may not win an unprecedented 4th straight national title. But the fact that an ACC writer is scared enough of ASU to talk smack when we are a little down is enough to brighten my day a little bit. Thank you very much, and please continue to write about ASU, it doesn't have positive, but just keep our name on people's minds. Also, pay close attention to the '09 team.

Isn't it amazing that this debate is always brought up by the I-A (FBS) folks who can't complete. You don't hear us trying to put down Division 2 or 2 putting down 3. No, you get this argument from a bottom dweller conference that has done nothing noteworthy the past 8 years except expand in size in pursuit of the all mighty $$$.

Dear ACC, have fun chasing that National Championship that DOESN'T EXIST! That is if you can ever regain enough respect from the computer nerds to even let you try.

FCS Football: NCAA's Highest Awarded Football National Championship.

85 vs 63 scholarships. They SHOULD be better than APP! But they're not. That's why we're having this debate.

Computer rankings are useless.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_NFL_Draft

I count 2 App players in that list. 0 Duke. 0 JMU You tell me whose contributing more to the NFL this year and who lost more talent last year.

JMU played out of their heads last weekend. The game against App was their Michigan game.

Also, we play in a division that has a PLAYOFF system. Last year this time, we had 1 loss and ended up with 2 by season's end. Those setbacks didn't seem to hurt us in the long run.

Don't even get me started on how, for the second year, SC nearly lost to Wufford (misspelled on purpose) until a miracle in the 4th Quarter .

Come December, we are untouchable.

Why would App go to Durham to play? Come up the Mountain any time.
Duke football...come on...

If App St wants it come get it. We have a new coach and new type of team at Duke. I have always respected App St and their fans but this is ridiculous. Duke dominated JMU and they beat App. You do the math!!! Yea I agree over the past 10 years Duke has been inferior but not now. Great win vs Michigan last year but after LSU beat you and could have score 100 pts with an awful qb I would think it would have shown you there is a difference in 1a and 1aa. By the way good luck App State on rest of season I do hope you guys can win another!!!