Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/2007 Appalachian State vs. Michigan football game/archive3

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The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by Ian Rose 10:01, 9 March 2014 (UTC) [1].[reply]

2007 Appalachian State vs. Michigan football game[edit]

2007 Appalachian State vs. Michigan football game (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)

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Nominator(s): Toa Nidhiki05 21:55, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

I am nominating this for featured article because I feel it meets the FAC criteria and represents an interesting and notable topic. This is the third nomination for this article - the other two have failed, primarily due to lack of discussion. I have received an exemption to re-nominate this after the last failure.

For those who aren't familiar with the game, this was a college football game between the Michigan Wolverines and Appalachian State Mountaineers. It is notable because the Mountaineers were from the second-tier subdivision (FCS) of college football; even though they won two straight titles at that level, they were not expected to even come close to beating the Wolverines, who were ranked #5 in the polls and were favorites to compete for a national championship in the top-tier FBS. However, the Mountaineers won the game 34-32, in an upset that was immediately hailed as one of the biggest in college football history. Interestingly, both teams went on to have success in their seasons, with the Mountaineers winning a third straight FCS title and the Wolverines winning a bowl game against Florida, the defending national champions. Toa Nidhiki05 21:55, 27 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]

  • Note: This is a WikiCup nomination. The following nominators are WikiCup participants: Toa Nidhiki05. To the nominator: if you do not intend to submit this article at the WikiCup, feel free to remove this notice. UcuchaBot (talk) 00:01, 28 January 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Note: This is a WikiCup nomination. The following nominators are WikiCup participants: Toa Nidhiki05. To the nominator: if you do not intend to submit this article at the WikiCup, feel free to remove this notice. UcuchaBot (talk) 00:02, 6 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support - as an excellent example of an article about an American football game. I will note, however, that reference 62 links to a Google search hit page, not an article ... Go Phightins! 00:08, 6 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Resolved comments from Red Phoenix let's talk...
  • Comments from Red Phoenix let's talk...check out the Sega task force
    • Interesting. I can still remember when and where I was when I heard about this game the first time in 2007 and how strange it was for Michigan to lose it. That being said, I don't have particular interest in either team, but I don't like to see FACs get archived for lack of comments, so I'll be glad to go through this today and hopefully keep that from happening again.
  • Prose comments - I don't tend to "nitpick" prose, but as an advocate for sentence and paragraph fluency, I have some points to be addressed.
    • Second paragraph of the lead has three straight sentences that start with "The..." Can this be broken up? It doesn't read smoothly.
      • I've modified it slightly now. How does it look? Toa Nidhiki05 21:20, 12 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
    • "cornerback Leon Hall and defensive linemen Alan Branch, David Harris, LaMarr Woodley" - I think you're missing an "and" in the series of three names in a row.
    • The second paragraph of "Broadcast and game notes" has several short, choppy sentences, which do not read well.
      • I've merged several sentences to cut down on that now. Toa Nidhiki05 21:20, 12 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
    • From "First Quarter": "a 3rd and one" - Here we're mixing numerals with spelled out words for single digits. Per MOS:NUMERAL, these should both be spelled out.
    • J. O'Neill is listed as the referee in both the prose and the infobox, but aren't college football games officiated by a team of officials and not just one? Make sure to make mention of this for the clarity of readers who may not be familiar with the American college game.
      • Good find - I've added a brief elaboration on the role and linked to the main page for officials. Toa Nidhiki05 21:20, 12 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
    • The term "three-and-out" is a football jargon term. Can it be explained or linked the first time it's used in the article?
  • Image review
    • On "File:UMich_App_St_at_line.jpg", what makes "This game was the biggest upset in the history of college football" relevant to the image description? That can safely be removed, and would be more encyclopedic if it were.
    • I think the "external images" link is a bit strange. Does the site we're linking to have permission to use the cover? If not, that's an issue of copyright violation. However, I'm of the opinion that adding the image itself and displaying it as a non-free, provided it's of a reduced resolution, would meet all ten of the WP:NFCC criteria to illustrate Sports Illustrated's featuring of the game and how impactful it was - it didn't just result in a picture on the cover, it resulted in the whole cover being the feature of the upset.
    • Do we know which quarter each image of the actual game is from? Can it be stated somewhere in the thumbnails or in the image pages itself?
    • Otherwise looks good. Everything else is public domain or Creative Commons.
  • Source review
    • Sources 53 and 54: Is there anything that can replace the YouTube videos? YouTube videos are usually not considered reliable sources unless they're coming from media entities with reputations for fact-checking. It's a neat primary source, but I don't think it's acceptable use in this context.
      • I've found a couple citations that say the same thing and added them. Does that fix the problem? They are citations 53 and 54 - same numbers as before. Toa Nidhiki05 21:20, 12 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
    • On the same note, source 35 is a copyright violation upload on YouTube and needs to be replaced as a reference. Can you cite the show itself instead of the video? If you know the name of the show (SportsCenter), the date, etc., you can cite the show directly and not link it to YouTube.
    • Source 41 - same as above, also a copyright violation upload. Can you cite the broadcast itself?
      • Same as above - I've done to the best I can now. Toa Nidhiki05 21:20, 12 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
    • I'm a tad concerned some of the ESPN links might disappear at some point over time. It's not necessary, but I would recommend archiving those just in case.
    • Otherwise looks good, no other concerns.
Red Phoenix let's talk...check out the Sega task force 16:54, 12 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Support on the basis of all comments resolved and no major further concerns to be addressed. I should note that my source review did not consist of any spot-checks. I have a few further comments as well that are not necessary for my support, but I would recommend looking into. Good work so far.
    • I like the mentions of further upsets of ranked FBS teams by FCS teams and think it's relevant. If that's the case, wouldn't this one also be worth mentioning? I'm not sure if Kansas State was ranked, but they were the defending Big 12 Conference champions going into the game, and they lost to FCS team North Dakota State. That makes for another shocking upset, I would reason.
    • Are infoboxes for sporting events typically signed with the team records before or after the game? I'm not familiar with the relevant WikiProject's standards on this, but I know I've seen other articles use the after-game record. You may want to check just to be sure this is consistent with any relevant guidelines of the sports WikiProject.
      • Before. I was confused by this as well, but just by looking at other good/featured articles the record prior to the game is what is used. Toa Nidhiki05 03:10, 16 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Red Phoenix let's talk...check out the Sega task force 00:16, 16 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]

  • Support - I reviewed this article at the previous FAC, and it has only improved since then. This is an excellent article, and I'm happy to support its promotion. - Awardgive. Help out with Project Fillmore County 04:23, 16 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
  • Image Review: Didn't see one of these in the other FACs so I'll add one. Five images in all, all of them relevant. First four are clearly PD. The Sports Illustrated cover I'd like to see the non-free rationale fleshed out more (to explain what makes that pic significant for the article) if you want to keep it, mainly since the prose seems to explain the significance of the game quite well in and of itself. Wizardman 03:47, 21 February 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Hey, sorry I forgot to comment here. I've modified the SI image page to flesh out the description. Toa Nidhiki05 18:51, 5 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Notes -- I'm about ready to promote this; before that, however:

  • You have quite a few duplicate links that you should review to see if they're really necessary (some may be) -- use this script to highlight them.
  • Scanning the lead, the term "the game" started to grate on me -- I've made a couple of changes to illustrate how you might reduce its usage somewhat. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 01:34, 8 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the finds - I've removed all of the dupe links (none were needed), and have cut down on a lot more uses of 'the game'. Toa Nidhiki05 13:28, 8 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
Okay, think that's improved, I quickly scanned and made the odd wording tweak -- hopefully some things there to take away for future articles/nominations... Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 00:03, 9 March 2014 (UTC)[reply]
The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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