Given a chance to say, "I told you so," University of Hawai'i athletic director Herman Frazier took it yesterday, saying, "at the end of the day, Michigan would have been better off playing us (than Appalachian State)" in football last weekend.

Frazier said both the Wolverines and Mountaineers turned down offers to play UH this season, helping set in motion one of the biggest upsets in college football history Saturday, Appalachian State's 34-32 upset of then-No. 5 Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The loss dropped Michigan from the polls and helped open up space for UH to rise three spots to 20th in the Associated Press poll and 22nd in the USA Today Coaches Poll.

Frazier said he believed a loss to UH, "would have been accepted by their (Michigan's) fans losing to a 23rd-ranked team easier than it would have been to a Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) Appalachian State in the long run."

Appalachian State received $400,000 for its appearance but Frazier said Michigan had offered UH $600,000 when athletic director Bill Martin, whom he had known from Olympic days, brought up up the game.

"He (Martin) contacted me first off about the game," Frazier said. Frazier said he initially had some questions about opening on the road in Ann Arbor "to be honest with you but after I talked to (head football coach) June Jones and Johnny (McNamara, associate athletic director) we said, 'let's go do it.' "

Frazier said, "My reasoning for wanting to go back there to play them and also my reason for talking to Indiana (which also didn't work out) was because I had spoken to members of the media on the East Coast and it would be good for our exposure because I knew it would help us in the long run if we were able to prevail." But Frazier said Michigan head coach Lloyd Carr ultimately shot down the game.

Frazier said he made a counter offer to Michigan, suggesting a swap of opponents with Southern California. Frazier's plan would have sent Idaho to Ann Arbor and UH to Los Angeles to play. However, Idaho, which had initially wanted out of the USC game after its former head coach, Nick Holt, ended up back with the Trojans, balked. Frazier also said, "Pete Carroll (the USC coach) and the boys weren't too excited about that, either, but it never came close because Idaho said 'no.' "

Frazier said he had talked to Appalachian State, which had lost 40-17 to UH in the 2003 opener, but the officials weren't interested. "I knew they had that first (Sept. 1) date open and that was before they signed with Michigan and their (athletic director) told me that when they played their game here it was one of the toughest games they ever played in the history of the school.

"When they got back to Boone, N.C., it was a tough time getting adjusted. Not only was it a tough game it was also a very physical game so he said he wasn't interested going to play us, which I found somewhat ironic because, then a few weeks later, (they signed) to play Michigan."

Meanwhile, Frazier said he has offers out to several I-AA teams to play a Sept. 6, 2008 game sandwiched between road games at Florida (Aug. 30) and Oregon State (Sept. 13) and is talking to Syracuse about a Dec. 6, 2008 regular season finale to complete the 13-game schedule.

"I also have teams talking to me about 2009 (and) there are a couple I could probably sign tomorrow if I wanted, but I want to get everything in place for 2008 first," Frazier said.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com.