Playing David Against Goliath

It's my article so I think that I can repost it here...

Smaller football teams don't always get their due and that is probably an understatement. That said, I am guessing that most college football fans, outside of possibly Northwestern fans, don't know who Ricky Santos is. I don't blame them. He has played one game this season, against the Wildcats. Oh, and he plays for Division 1-AA New Hampshire.

I can guarantee that a few people across the country, including those same Northwestern fans, took notice of Santos last Saturday. Santos led the New Hampshire Wildcats to a win over their bigger Wildcat brethren 34-17.

Santos threw for 206 yards, ran for 34 more, and was involved in all 5 of the team's touchdowns in the win, throwing two and running in the other three. Santos's performance made even the MRI take notice, almost placing him as the "Heisman-like Performance" in the Heisman Watch for Week two. However, since Santos can't officially win the award, I didn't select him, but I thought his performance warranted at least a little discussion.

Santos did earn Division 1-AA Offensive Player of the Week honors and also inclusion into the discussion for National Player of the Week. The National Player of the Week is an award sponsored by USA Today, and normally only Division 1-A players are among the five finalists. It is rare for a player from Division 1-AA to even get into the "Five That Just Missed the Cut". Santos wasn't able to win despite a grass roots effort on the New Hampshire website asking all fans to vote for him. The award went to Ohio State linebacker James Laurinaitis, made several key plays in the Buckeyes' win over Texas. Just being on the list though is a big honor for a player on a team that won't get major coverage again unless they make it to the Division 1-AA finals.

The New Hampshire victory was the fourth time this season that a lower division club has pulled an upset against Division 1-A, adding Northwestern to a list that already includes Colorado, Duke, and New Mexico. With four wins, the lower division has doubled its total from last season, in 21 less games. With thirteen games, coming this weekend, they have multiple chances to continue to add to that total, especially with some of those games coming against the worst teams in Division 1-A.

If it seems like the media is taking more notice of these wins this season, it might be because of how poor those lower division teams did last season. The 2005 season saw the lowest number of games cross division in the last three years, probably as a result of what happened to Auburn two years ago. The Tigers were forced into games with lower level opponents at the last minute, possibly costing them a chance at the National Title. Another reason may be that this is a change in the trend which has seen the lower league winning a smaller percentage of its games against the big boys each season.

Going back to 2003, Division 1-AA teams won 13.89% of their games against the top Division. The next year, it was down to 10.71%, and last season, a paltry two wins led to only a 3.70% winning percentage. So far this season, they are winning 9.3% of their games, so compared to last year, it sure must seem like a windfall for the teams that actually have a playoff system.

Division 1-AA teams suffer at times from lack of funding, lack of scholarships, and lack of facilities, but one thing it doesn't lack is the ability to pull off upsets. Here's the official MRI watch for one more team to pull off the big upset this season. And if percentages are any indication, that is most definitely an understatement.