By now, anyone remotely interested in college football knows what happened in Ann Arbor, Mich. last weekend.

Michigan, one of the most successful college football programs in NCAA history, was upset by Appalachian State 34-32.

Upon hearing the outcome of this game, college football fans in unison uttered one question: Appalachian who?

Appalachian State was a big underdog against the former No. 5 ranked team in the nation primarily because of its standing as a Football Championship Subdivision team (formerly I-AA). Michigan competes at the Football Bowl Subdivision level (formerly I-A).

What should be running through a fan’s mind is, FCS schools shouldn’t be beating FBS schools, right?

Northern Illinois coach Joe Novak doesn’t think so at all.

The Huskies are a FBS team as well, and this weekend’s opponent, Southern Illinois, is an FCS program.

The Salukis, though, are ranked No. 11 in the FCS poll, and have been a very successful program in recent years. Novak was very up-front when asked whether he’s prepared his team differently for SIU than an FBS team.

“Not in the least bit,” he said. “There’s no difference. In some ways, they have an advantage.”

Novak also said that FCS schools are helped by talented football players transferring from FBS schools who are immediately eligible to play.

“They’ve got some big-time talent on those [FCS] teams,” Novak said. “They’re pretty darn talented, and people need to understand that.”

Novak said he believes teams like SIU and the aforementioned Mountaineers would compete for championships in FBS conferences.

“[SIU] would compete in our conference very well,” he said. “I think they’d be right in the chase to win the championship. Appalachian State would probably be in the top 50 of the IA teams in the country, they’re that good.”

This will be the 43rd meeting between these two schools, and the Salukis haven’t beat the Huskies since 1979.

But things have changed since then. In the last meeting in 2004, Southern came within a two-point conversion of beating the Huskies. Safety Mark Reiter, one of the few holdovers from that season, remembers that game three years ago.

“I knew coming in that they did have a good team,” Reiter said. “They were just as good as any Division I team that we’ve played.”

Yes, the Salukis will be no slouch, and the Huskies will need to play a complete game, especially on defense, where they will be facing SIU running back John Randle, who is a transfer player from Kansas.

“We need to establish the line of scrimmage and stop the run,” Reiter said. “They do have some great backs and a pretty good offensive line, so we need to stop that and make them beat us with the pass.”