Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
The classic Midwestern ethos, as much as we'd like to mock it, is still packed with value. Like, uh, working hard and whatever. Or more specifically, doing a thing right the first time. And if you can't do it right the first time, keep doing it until you get it right.
Like scheduling a game against the team that beat you in maybe the biggest upset in the sport's history? Yes, exactly.
A tone deaf decision, but as strange as it is to say, the Michigan Wolverines drawing up a game against a SoCon team is probably the boldest scheduling move they could've reached for. What if they lose again? I know it's a one-in-a-million, but still ...
Either way, sportswriters will get to use words like exorcism and redemption. There's nothing that makes sportswriters happier. Michigan will enter that game more fired up than anybody ever has for a cupcake opponent.
Still, they say the worst scheduling decision a top-conference team can make is to play a lesser team that's actually pretty good. A loss to a bad Division I-A team would be hilarious, but forgotten, while a loss to a good I-AA team that's actually better than some Sun Belt and WAC teams goes down as an all-timer.
And it's not like the Mountaineers aren't still a threat to pull off an upset. Appalachian State was the defending I-AA champ back then, and they finished the season ranked No. 2 in 2010. They're this year's preseason No. 2. And by 2014, they might even be a I-A team.
Somehow, we could look up and see a Big Ten team playing a first-year Sun Belt team and rightly call it the game of the week. Weirdest rivalry in sports?
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