Perhaps going all the way to Louisiana for a play-off football game wasn’t a bad thing.  In Louisiana, it was obvious that the game was important to the students and the surrounding area.  

Of course, it’s a pain trying to figure out how to get to Natchitoches (pronounced Nak-a-tish) Louisiana, let alone work out the financing of the trip. In the end, however, it was worth it.

Purple clad fans, numbering 10,817, watched the game unravel. The crowd proved to be one of the most boisterous that Appalachian has played for this season.  

It was there that I saw what a play-off game should have looked like in Boone a week ago against Tennessee State.

The games were very contrasting. 

The game with Tennessee State in Boone drew a hearty crowd of 3,885.  Although it was a loud one,  I am forced to ask, just how important is football at Appalachian State?  

The conventional argument says that the first round game was during the Thanksgiving holiday, and that may have had an effect on attendance. At first glance, that’s a good excuse.   But the 1995 first round home play-off game over Thanksgiving drew 9,467 people. 

In 1995, 9,467 people didn’t seem to care about the break.  

Does it even mattter that ASU has a team that was one of the eight best teams in the nation this year?  

No, probably not.

It’s too late for me to write an article blasting the student body for not coming to the games.  

You have all missed out on a heck of a year.  Only two other teams in Appalachian State history have finished with ten victories.

Perhaps the most impressive win of the season was a 30-27 triumph over Wake Forest. The win was not impressive because it was over a I-A team, but because it came against Wake Forest in a year that was supposed to be their best season ever.  

This year, Appalachian could have held their own against just about anyone in the Atlantic Coast Conference except for Florida State, who is well, Florida State.  

There was a team that good  playing in our backyard this year, and everyone ignored them come play-off time.  

I don’t understand it.  

Someone explained to me that the team lost a lot of fans two years ago (1996) when Appalachian had an all-world team that included Dexter Coakley, and failed to even make the play-offs (all this after a slogan for the year that was “Unfinished Business”).

While that argument made sense, It was too easy to see that this year’s team was altogether different after the win over Wake Forest.

Of course, there was the Toilet Bowl going on in Charlotte that day. NC State and North Carolina were duking it out to decide who had bragging rights in the state for football, however important that is.  NC State isn’t all that good this year, and Carolina is at a very mediocre 6-5.  Without a doubt, there were countless numbers of fans at that game that might have otherwise been in Boone.  

There was also the 23-6 drubbing that the Mountaineers took in Cullowhee to end the season that might have led students to believe that things were looking down for the Mountaineers.  

The loss to Western, however, was a fluke.  Appalachian had beaten them 13 times in a row; the Catamounts were due.  The percentages said it was time.

That still doesn’t legitimize the low turnout for the first game. 

Until that point, the team had won nine games, and more importantly, all five games at home were won by an average score of 32-10.  Could the fans not forgive the team for the loss?  Were they more enthralled with a rivalry between two schools they didn’t go to?  Was it all because no one wanted to leave their families a day early?   

This was one of the best teams in Appalachian State history, and everyone missed their last home game.   

All I can do is wonder.