The Michigan Wolverines had high hopes of being national champions for NCAA Division I football. Instead, they lost 34-32 Saturday to the Division I-AA Appalachian State Mountaineers of Boone, N.C.

Good.

Many fans of Gopher and Hawkeye football rejoiced this weekend because the upset bodes well for their Big Ten chances.

Too many people who work in college sports &8212; from the Bowl Championship Series officials to the conference administrators and especially TV producers &8212; favor a fairly predictable college season. The same 12 or so powerhouses are supposed to dominate every year. And those powerhouses are supposed to belong to the six major conferences. (Yes, yes, we know, except for independent Notre Dame.)

That way, the TV networks can schedule far in advance the games they guess &8212; yes, guess &8212; will fetch high ratings, and the conferences and powerhouse schools can reap their fat checks.

Not from the right conference? They are treated like children at Thanksgiving. You go sit at the kiddie table.

True, things are getting better. Boise State is not in a major conference and last season the BSC invited it to the Fiesta Bowl. In fact, it beat Big 12 champ Oklahoma. Of course, Boise State had to go undefeated to get there, and Florida, a team with one loss, was crowned national champion. At least the kid was invited to sit at the table for grown-ups.

Men&8217;s and women&8217;s college basketball thrives because the small schools make great runs and knock off the big schools. Small and mid-size schools can field programs that compete on par with legendary programs. In the NFL, there is great parity. Green Bay has equal footing with New York. There is hope for teams from small markets.

Fans like sports with wide appeal like that. You would think TV producers and sports officials would want that in college football. The more teams that get to truly participate, the more people watch the sport. The more people watching the sports, the higher the ratings.

If Michigan had blown Appalachian State away as expected, no one would have noticed. The Mountaineers gave fans something to get excited about, and sportswriters something to write about.

And they put knots in the stomachs of TV producers and major conference officials.

Good.