Note: This is part of our ongoing “FCS Week” feature here at ITB.  Continue to check back this week for more news and analysis from around the Football Championship Subdivision (I-AA.)

For fans of college football’s top teams, this is usually the time of year when we obsess about preseason rankings, compulsively assess the situation of our teams’ conference rivals, and often completely forget to worry about that small state or private school down the road that was given a half-million dollar check to essentially be blown out in a warm-up performance.

Yet for the fans of those schools, and for the fans of Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) schools everywhere across the country, the prospect of such a game presents the challenge of the lifetime, and a chance to rise from relative obscurity to national prominence for at least one Saturday afternoon.

Last year we were given a crash course in just what an inter-subdivision upset could mean, with Corey Lynch’s blocked field goal against Michigan serving as the iconic image of the season.

While this year’s matchups may not present the kind of earth-shattering implications that Appalachian State’s upset of Michigan did, beginning on August 28th dozens of these FCS teams will be chasing that same dream, trying to play the role of David against their respective Goliaths.

Over the next week we’ll be counting down the Top 10 most-likely FCS-over-FBS upsets of 2008, as well as discussing the trends of these upsets and just what it takes for these smaller programs to take down even proven FBS winners.

Keep in mind, this list is just an assessment of the FCS teams with the best chances to take down certain FBS teams—meaning, among other things, that there could be more or fewer upsets than the ten I have listed here.

Today we’re looking at my tenth through eighth most likely upsets for 2008, and starting with a very familiar team…

No. 10: Appalachian State at LSU (Aug. 30)

Louisiana State University is fresh off a National Championship in which the Tigers won the SEC and pounded Ohio State 38-24 to take the title of number one team in America.  Surely such a team would be unstoppable against a lowly FCS team, wouldn’t it?

The answer is probably a very solid “of course,” but when discussing Appalachian State, one almost needs to throw all of last season’s accolades out the window.  So let’s start with what we know.

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