It’s been a great year! I want to thank everyone who read the site, commented, chatted with me on Twitter, and made this a fun site to run!

I wouldn’t say these were neccessarily my best posts of the year, but these were the most popular. Obviously conference realignment was a huge topic this year, and you’ll see that reflected in the top-10. It’s kind of interesting to look back now at all of the rumors and to see now which ones of them actually came to pass.

10. CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT: Sun Belt Commissioner Talks Expansion, Mentions Georgia Southern

In this article, I quoted the Sun Belt Commissioner as saying he didn’t expect the Sun Belt to add anymore teams “this year”. Turns out he was right.

9. Football Recruiting: App State Lands 4-Star Oregon Transfer WR

Tacoi Sumler was a high-profile recruit for App State. He only saw playing time in 6 games this season for a total of 5 grabs for 47 yards. He also had 5 kickoff returns for 97yds. It’s still too early to tell for him, I’m hoping to see him have a breakout season next year.

8. CONTEST: AppStateNation’s 2013 NCAA Div-I FCS Bracket Challenge

I hope to make this a yearly event! Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest!

7. CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT RUMOR: Davidson/Charleston/Furman/StonyBrook ALL to the CAA?!

This rumor ended up being mostly true. Stony Brook did join the CAA for football and Charleston joined in all sports but football (which they don’t play). Davidson was in fact offered, but they said no (for now). As for the Furman rumor, I’m thinking maybe that one was just talk.

6. SOURCE: Scott Satterfield to be Announced As Next Head Coach at App State

I definitely got lucky with this article, a decent source approached me with info that Scott Satterfield would be the next head coach. Obviously he was right, and because of him I was able to break the news here first.

5. CONFERENCE REALIGNMENT: MAC Commissioner Talks Expansion

Honestly, I’m surprised this wasn’t further up the list. I obsessively look for conference realignment news and I stumbled upon this unknown podcast interview with the MAC’s commissioner. I still don’t think the MAC will offer us anytime soon, but I do hope we are at least pursuing it as a backup plan to the Sun Belt.

4. TWITTER RUMORS: Georgia Southern & Appalachian State to be Added to Sun Belt?

This was a pretty recent post and the rumors have so far been wrong. I think that the Big East breakup is largely to blame, otherwise I think this would have actually happened. Now we are in wait and see mode until the Big East does something.

3. Fashion Police: Appalachian State’s New Throwback Jerseys

This one was popular because, for whatever reason, people really like to see cool jerseys. A lot of the people who read this post weren’t even App State fans. Since this post the jerseys have grown on me, but I’m still glad they were used just for one game.

2. App Alumni: Former ASU Dance Team Captain is a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader

Along with breaking the Scott Satterfield news, this was probably one of the best articles of the year. I follow a lot of people on Twitter and Facebook that go to App. I happened to see a post from one of her friends congratulating her on becoming an NFL cheerleader. I did some digging and found out she was the former ASU dance team captain and boom, you have this article. Later on I got to interview her and had a fun time with that.

1. REPORT: CAA Formally Invites Appalachian State, Davidson, & Charleston

I learned a little about which sources to trust with this article. Although it’s true these schools were contacted, “formally invited” may have been too strong in reference to Appalachian State. We might never know, but it doesn’t look like we seriously considered the CAA as an option. Charleston did end up going to the CAA and Davidson was offered but after consideration said no.

Thanks again and I hope you continue to check out the site in 2013! Don’t forget to follow AppStateNation on Twitter and Facebook!