How Did Appalachian State Pass ETSU By?

Once upon a time they were equals. Now ETSU is Appalachian’s tune-up game.

On Saturday when ETSU travels to Boone to pick up a loss and a $275,000 check at Appalachian State, there’s going to be a sense among the current student bodies this is a perfectly normal occurrence.

Big school schedules little school for a tune-up before embarking full throttle in to their football season.

But there was a time when ETSU and Appalachian State were equals. They were in the same conference a generation ago, and after a 35–34 ETSU victory at Boone won on a Mark Hutsell to Jimmy Dykes touchdown pass with 47 seconds left in the 1978 game, the series record on the gridiron between the Buccaneers and Mountaineers was dead even.

More recently Hutsell, shown here with former ETSU head football coach Jack Carlisle, was a color commentator on Bucs’ ESPN+ broadcasts.

So what caused Appalachian State football to leave ETSU in the dust, winning 23 of the past 26 games the two teams have played since then?

Why is ETSU rebuilding after two atrocious seasons in FCS, whereas Appalachian State received four votes in the Associated Press’ Top 25 FBS 2024 preseason football poll?

The obvious reason is in 2003 ETSU dropped football and in 2014 Appalachian State left the Southern Conference for the FBS Sun Belt Conference.