By Adam Kilgore
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Coach Jerry Moore stopped on the edge of the Appalachian State practice field one day this preseason, turned and gazed at what his football program has become. To his right, a new turf practice field rested next to an under-construction, 120,000-square-foot complex the height of a seven-story building. To his left, Moore saw a new upper deck for Kidd Brewer Stadium, packed with 4,400 new seats. In total, the view equated to a nearly $50 million flex of might.

Moore had watched "Monday Night Football" days earlier, and the mention of one of his former players prompted a conversation among the announcers, heard nationwide, about the 16,000-student school in Boone, N.C. The quarterback he followed off the practice field, a whippet-thin charge of energy named Armanti Edwards, has been mentioned as a dark horse Heisman Trophy contender.

"This all wouldn't have happened," Moore said, "without Michigan."

As college football's season nears and the first anniversary of Appalachian State's mind-set-shifting victory at Michigan arrives with it, the rest of division I-AA shares a similar sentiment. At no point, several coaches said, has I-AA football ever enjoyed a higher profile than it does at the moment, owing mainly to two events that bookended last year's season. It opened with Appalachian State appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated. And it closed with Delaware's Joe Flacco becoming the second quarterback selected in the NFL draft.

That increased notoriety, though, brings with it scheduling difficulties and only a debatable burst in recruiting. It also lessens one of the division I-AA team's greatest advantages in matchups against I-A opponents: the element of surprise. Even the sport's grandest powerhouses understand they can no longer afford to overlook top-shelf I-AA programs. Teams once dismissed as early-season fodder now must be taken seriously, if they're worth playing at all.

"That one pivotal win there has probably made some of the BCS teams look a little closer at who they're scheduling," said Furman Coach Bobby Lamb, whose team plays at Virginia Tech on Sept. 6. "What Appalachian State was able to do in finishing the deal was pretty amazing. Really, in the back of everybody's mind, they're thinking there is a possibility that it can happen."

Said New Hampshire Coach Sean McDonnell: "One thing it's going to do, it's going to make division I-A teams very wary of I-AA programs. I think every coach at the I-A level can talk to their teams about the possibility of I-AA teams beating a I-A team, and the reality of it."

McDonnell is stunned at how much potential recruits know about I-AA football compared with years past. The publicity momentum will continue to build in anticipation of Appalachian State's Aug. 30 showdown against Louisiana State, an unprecedented meeting of defending national champions.

"People who didn't know about us know about us now," Delaware Coach K.C. Keeler said.

The attention burst, depending on whom you ask, has led to either a boon in recruiting or scant effect at all. More and more, Lamb and Keeler said, elite I-AA programs are landing recruits who once would have played for teams in lower-tier I-A conferences, such as the Sun Belt and MAC.

"We win those battles all the time now," Keeler said. "This is how we recruit: Bigger is not better. Better is better. Oh by the way, we had a first-round draft choice. It does give validation to our story.

"The ESPN people tell us we're a better atmosphere than a lot of the I-A teams. Eighty-five [scholarships, as opposed to] 63. That's the only difference. When you have an Appalachian State beating Michigan and you have Joe Flacco, you have all the attention that comes with it, there's more validity."

Mike Farrell, a recruiting expert for Rivals.com, was taken aback this offseason when several recruits would offer a typical list of schools they were choosing from -- say, Wake Forest, North Carolina and North Carolina State -- and tack on Appalachian State at the end.

Then again, "they always mention those schools last," Farrell said. "It's always a backup in their mind."

Those players uniformly crossed Appalachian State off their list and, if they had the option, chose a I-A team. (It's worth noting Flacco landed at Delaware only after transferring from Pittsburgh.) Farrell said "98 out of 100" kids who receive offers from a division I-A school have historically accepted it over a I-AA offer, and he has observed no shift in the wake of last season.

"I don't see it happening," Farrell said. "If it was ever going to happen, this would be the year. They finished their season the way they were expected to. They did everything correctly. And still, you haven't seen any results. So I don't think it's ever going to happen. As long as there are 30 bowl games, as long as a 6-6 team can get to a bowl, as long as kids think the only way to the NFL is through D-I football, I don't see any of those things changing."

What may be changing is how I-A teams approach scheduling I-AA opponents. Teams from division I-A, without question, still want to play I-AA games. They are always at home, always against an opponent with 22 fewer scholarship players and victories still count toward bowl eligibility. But, first-year Richmond coach Mike London said, "I think what happened because of Appalachian State, the I-A schools said, 'Let's decide what I-AA school we want to play.' "

Teams from the Colonial Athletic Association, which boasts four teams in the I-AA preseason top 10, have beaten 10 I-A teams since 2002. New Hampshire has beaten Rutgers, Northwestern and Marshall in the past four years.

"It's getting less selective for us," McDonnell said. "They're going to take a real hard look at it."

Said Keeler: "Just look how Rutgers schedules now. Rutgers isn't playing any CAA games. They want that I-AA game, but they're not going to play anyone in our conference."

Rutgers this year plays Morgan State, a MEAC school that went 5-6 last season.

Moore prefers to play one I-A opponent each season, to give his team a measuring stick and to give his players a chance to prove, on the field, they should have been recruited by a major program. Appalachian State had future games locked in against Virginia Tech, Florida and Georgia before it beat Michigan, but it is still looking for a 2009 opponent.

Athletic Director Charlie Cobb said at least 25 teams have turned him down. Some schools have sent e-mails proclaiming they need a game. Cobb responded immediately, only to receive a reply saying they had found an opponent. Other athletic directors have called Cobb, telling him a division I-A school just called looking for a game. When Cobb calls the I-A athletic director, he's told the schedule is full.

"It's comical, some of the responses I've got," Cobb said. "The thing I've never understood truly, athletics is about competition. It's about who's good and who's not. At some point, step up and play people. Scheduling is not as complicated as people make it out to be."

Some elite I-AA teams have yet to feel the backlash. London, who came to the Spiders from Virginia's staff, said Richmond, which advanced to the semifinals last season, can still schedule I-A opponents by pitching to schools with similar academic profiles; Richmond plays Virginia this season and has future games scheduled against Duke and Vanderbilt.

Some I-A programs have adopted the practice of scheduling I-AA opponents later in the season to avoid being shocked. No preseason scrimmages or games against other teams, unlike high school and professional football, leaves coaches uncertain about their own personnel in the first week. Plus the disadvantage of having just 63 scholarship players instead of 85 is not as pronounced before the injury attrition of a season has taken hold.

"A lot of things can happen -- a lot of things that wouldn't happen in the fifth ballgame -- in that first ballgame," Virginia Tech Coach Frank Beamer said. "Particularly when you play a I-AA team in the opener, you don't know what your team is all about." (The Hokies play Furman in their second game.)

The surge of I-AA football might be slowed by an old problem. Programs that can compete almost evenly with I-A foes, such as Marshall in the late 1990s, cease being I-AA schools and leap to I-A. Appalachian State, with its success and sparkling facilities, might seem ready to be next.

Cobb said the issue was "a moot point" because of the four-year moratorium currently in place for teams changing divisions. However, he didn't dismiss the possibility, either.

"Our chancellor says we want to be the best we can be. What that is, don't define it," Cobb said. "We're going to put ourselves in a position to go where we want to go. I don't think we're going to limit ourselves."

Said Moore: "To tell you the truth, we're not ready to go into the ACC or Big East. But we're approaching that, I can tell you that. In the future, down the line, I can picture it."

It takes imagination these days to consider what is possible for Appalachian State. For example: Could Edwards be considered for the Heisman? If not this year, then perhaps next season, when he'll be a senior who has slain Michigan and, perhaps, a winner of three national titles. Moore would welcome the frenzy that would surely follow Edwards becoming the most serious I-AA Heisman hopeful since Daunte Culpepper and Steve McNair.

"There's a lot of pride that goes along with that," Moore said. "A lot of coffee-shop talk."

His program last season sparked countless conversations. One year later, more than ever, people will sit and talk in places such as Boone and Richmond, waiting to see what happens next.