They’re calling it the biggest upset in College football history. Appalachian State defeated Michigan 34-32 and already sports analyst are saying this may have ended Michigan’s entire season. Did you know though that Mrs. Teen South Carolina is planning on attending Appalachian State this fall? That’s right “U.S. Americans” our YouTube flavor of the week will be attending the school that just handed out the biggest embarrassment in Wolverine history. If 1 in 5 Americans are unable to find the U.S. on a world map, how many do you think could find Appalachian State?

Now that the improbable has occurred perhaps Michigan fans will stop, look at a globe, locate North Carolina and for the city of Boone. That’s where all summer the Appalachian State Mountaineers were preparing themselves to travel to Ann Arbor and hand not only Michigan but the Big Ten a hurt that will not soon be forgotten.

The insane thing is this was a warm up game. Michigan is supposed to use this miss match to get ready for their “real season”. If there going to lose 34-32 to Appalachian State, what will be the outcome against their other opponents? Michigan welcomes Oregon next week and for years West Coast football has had to put up with the Big Ten’s rant on how weak the Pac-10 conference is. I’m not saying the Pac-10 is the SEC but I’m sure they’re a stronger conference than The Football Championship Subdivision or Division 1-AA where the Mountaineers proudly play.

Congratulations Michigan you just made history, better luck next season when you’re home opener will have to be The Royal National College for the Blind. Good thing for you is they’re from England so they may be slow adjusting to the time change. WOLVERINES!!!!!!!

From ESPN.
HILLIARD, Ohio — A high school student who tricked football fans from a crosstown rival into holding up signs that together spelled out, “We Suck,” was suspended and banned temporarily from extracurricular activities for the prank, according to the school’s principal.

Kyle Garchar, a senior at Hilliard Davidson High School in suburban Columbus, said he spent about 20 hours over three days plotting the trick, which was captured on video and posted on the video-sharing Web site YouTube. He said he was inspired by a similar prank pulled by Yale students in 2004, when Harvard fans were duped into holding up cards with the same message.

Davidson Principal John Bandow had told students that he expected them to show sportsmanship at the game, which Darby won 21-10.

Bandow gave Garchar and two students who helped him three days of in-school suspension and banned them from extracurricular activities for a semester, the students said. Two Darby students who helped Garchar received the same punishment after the principals from both schools spoke by phone.

Hilliard schools spokeswoman Michelle Wray said she couldn’t confirm the punishment because the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act forbids the release of student disciplinary information.

“We weren’t expecting it to be such a severe punishment,” said Jen Trimmer, 17, one of the students involved. “We just thought it was all in good fun.”

At the end of the video, Garchar wryly thanks the 800 Hilliard Darby High School supporters who raised the cards at the start of the third quarter during last Friday’s football game.

“It couldn’t have been done without you,” reads the closing frame of the video.

Garchar, 17, created a grid to plan how the message would be spelled out once fans in three sections held up either a black or white piece of construction paper.

Directions left on stadium seats instructed fans to check that the number listed on their papers matched their seat numbers. Darby supporters were told the message would read “Go Darby.”

“It was tedious,” Garchar said. “I didn’t really think it was going to work.”

But it did, and everyone at Davidson has been talking it ever since, said Jordan Moore, a junior.

“That was the ultimate in-your-face,” he said. “I think it was ingenious.”

Courtesy of Youtube:

If someone gave you some sardoodledom, wouldn’t you laugh too? That’s what Spelling Bee contestant Kennyi Aouad did when he got it in the heat of competition, but he eventually composed himself and finished strong like Lebron James dunking on Rasheed. At least he didn’t have to spell a dirty sounding word like negus.

By the way, props for the sly question–asking about kingdom. It was worth the shot.

See more of SportsRumblings’ posts at his blog, Sports Rumblings.

Either someone at the Scripps National Spelling Bee dozed off before printing the contestant placards, or they just have a flair for irony. This is what they get for hiring the same interns who printed out the West Virgina NIT Champions shirts.

See more of SportsRumblings’ posts at his blog, Sports Rumblings.

Lots of buzz in the educational world about the backlash from universities regarding the popular US News and World Report’s annual college rankings. Of course, this sort of backlash has gone on for years - but never been so public or so strong. While the rankings are never intended to be concrete and absolute (they are intended to sell magazines!) - they do serve a purpose and, as long as admissions offices continue to tout their rankings, they will continue to be meaningful to college-bound students.

College Rankings Face Backlash From College Presidents
By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY

What if they created a college rankings system and nobody participated? That question is growing increasingly relevant as a burgeoning number of college presidents say they are fed up with U.S. News & World Report’s popular annual feature.

Arguing that the rankings do a disservice to prospective students, a group of ranking critics, including several college presidents, are preparing to send a letter urging college presidents nationwide to not cooperate with U.S. News and other publications that compile such data.

Earlier this year, the president of Trinity University in Washington, D.C., writing in a publication for university trustees, urged colleagues to toss their surveys in the trash, as she has done for years.

Now, a non-profit group whose members include presidents of some of the nation’s most selective liberal arts colleges, plans to discuss this June whether it might collectively refuse to cooperate.

A draft version of the letter from college presidents asks colleagues nationwide to join them in refusing to fill out surveys such as one mailed out each spring by U.S. News that asks top college administrators to evaluate peer institutions. The letter also urges colleagues to refuse to tout rankings as an indication of their school’s quality.

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