Ariy-El Boynton

I am in love.

That’s right, and I am not afraid to admit it at all.

The Big Ten Network has just made my Saturdays and the rest of my week that much more exciting.

While the rest of the country had to watch boring college football games like Georgia Tech over Notre Dame 33-3 (boring!), Louisville beat Murray State 73-10 (zzz) and Nebraska beat Nevada 52-20. Please wake me up when it is over!

But I had the privilege via my adopted family (thank you) receiving the newly formed Big Ten Network through DirecTV (I expect my endorsement check in the mail). According to sporting news, fewer than 3.5 million homes in the conferences entire eight-state region had the Big Ten Network available, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

As a young man growing up in Seattle, besides seeing rain 365 days a year, I knew that I loved the University of Washington, and I didn’t really like the Big Ten Conference.

I mean, come on, how could a conference that is called the Big Ten Conference have 11 teams in it? It just doesn’t make any sense to me.

But due to the glorious network, I have found my second favorite college conference.

On the first college football day of the network, it captured one of the greatest upsets of all time. The upset on Sept. 1 will go down in history books along with the upsets of Notre Dame over Navy in 1913, 37-point underdog Oregon State defeated the University of Washington in 1985, Carnegie Tech defeated Norte Dame in 1926 along with Navy defeating two-time national champion and undefeated Army 14-2 in 1950.

And then there was Michigan. The 5th ranked Wolverines decided to schedule their first football championship subdivision (formally Division I-AA) member ever. The team that was scheduled to play against Michigan was two-time FCS champion Appalachian State out of Boone, North Carolina.

By the way, Appalachian State won a championship, and actual playoff games. No controversy! The championship was settled on the field; no computers were used to decide the championship, unlike Div. I-A.

Everything was against the Mountaineers; no FCS team has ever beat a ranked Div. I-A team, ever. 107,000-plus fans were rooting for Michigan at the “big house” (Michigan Stadium). The Mountaineers were 33