All You Never Cared to Know About I-AA Ball

I had this theory that the community of Pocatello, Idaho, home of the Idaho State Bengals of the I-AA Big Sky Conference, would be silly excited that Matt Gutierrez (erstwhile Michigan Wolverines quarterback and recent transfer) had joined their ranks. My hunch was that any I-AA team would be psyched to get a former QB from a I-A super power program, especially one as touted as a prep as Gutierrez was coming out of the De La Salle High School in California and being briefly anointed the Michigan starter.

So I googled 'Matt Gutierrez' to tap into the expected well of media hype and stumbled upon a website, Monsters & Critics, that bothered not only to identify, but to then rank all 101 I-AA football teams (including the Ivy League schools who cannot participate in I-AA's most redeeming feature - a post-season playoff which determines a single champion - and whose ranking is therefore sort of meaningless). Blechh.

(*As an aside the website mentioned above mostly sucks so my inclusion of them is by no means an endorsement. Here's why: With their marvelously, detailed and unnecessary coverage of I-AA I would have expected at least as much of their I-A College Football link, but it is broken as of the writing of this post. I'm giving them a chance to fix that link, or delete it and prove their flawed, experimental approach of exploiting the I-AA College Football 'niche.')

I can't imagine the research burden this must have presented to reporter Matt Dougherty who dutifully put together a snippet for each of these ridiculously obscure schools, despite the gloomy prospect of nobody actually giving a shit. Here's to Sisyphean tasks.

At the end there's tacked on a 'Mid-Major' list of 21 schools I had previously not heard of
(except for Valparaiso due to is periodic Cindarellaness in the NCAA Basketball Tourney). Anyone who can explain why these schools (not to be confused with team from I-A conferences like the Mountain West or Conference USA) are also referred to as mid-majors will when a personal check from me to you worth $2.

Anyway, congrats to Appalachian State for that #1 ranking, shame on you Savannah State for going 0-11 last season and being ranked dead last in college football's b-list ranking.

As for Gutierrez and Idaho State, they are ranked #23 coming off a 5-6 season in '05. That's a testament I think to the perceived improvement of the team based on the arrival of Gutierrez alone and a few state pen. and JC transfers.

You can check out the rankings if you care to HERE.