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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/nosotros_road_sodium on 2023-09-01 20:54:23.
Clearly, a lot has changed in the world of college football (and college sports) in 16 years. Back then, Appalachian State was in FCS, the west coast’s power conference was called the Pac-10, and the Big East still sponsored football.
It took a long negotiating process for App State to accept a $400,000 paycheck to travel to Ann Arbor for what on paper should have been a blowout loss to the no. 5 team in FBS.
Also back in 2007, regular TV was still the primary way of watching sports; streaming video was still rather niche and limited for most users to 480p (compared to the ultra HD that’s available now). The Big Ten Network debuted on August 30 that year, and the App State-Michigan game would be its first live football game.
Unfortunately, launching a new TV network came with its difficulties. On game day, Comcast and Charter had not yet secured carriage deals with the BTN. Because those two companies were the primary cable providers in Michigan, only a “small percentage” of Michigan fans could watch the game.
And guess what, that was unintentionally a good thing. Because this was how the game ended on BTN: “Good snap, good hold, AND THE KICK IS BLOCKED! Appalachian State has stunned the college football world!” App State pulled off a 34-32 upset after Corey Lynch blocked a 37-yard field goal attempt by Jason Gingell and became the first FCS team to get a win against a top-25 FBS team.
Since then, top-25 teams have lost buy games to FCS schools in 2010 (Virginia Tech to JMU), 2013 (Oregon State to Eastern Washington), 2016 (Iowa to North Dakota State), and 2021 (Washington to Montana). Did the App State game have a role in inspiring football recruits who couldn’t get an FBS offer to think, “you STILL have the chance to go to a big school’s stadium and do what used to be impossible”?