OT: The Greatest Upsets in Sports
We just witnessed sports history.
UMBC, a 16 seed, just beat Virginia, a 1 seed. We've all seen the stats since then: this is the first 16 seed to win in 136 tries. The remarkable 135-0 streak was one of the great streaks in sports.
And it makes this one of the great upsets of all time. This is a delight for every sports fan in the country tonight. I believe this is, easily, the upset of the century, in any sport.
What are others that rank with this? I can think of two that even rate, one of which is higher. What are upsets that approach this internationally, or in unusual sports?
We've seen history. Where does it rank?
Hognailed? Do hogs even have nails?
People have short (ish?) memories around here. We played UMBC early in the season a while back. Pretty sure people complained about playing them because of how bad they were. We struggled in that game for a while, IIRC.
March 17th, 2018 at 10:12 AM ^
March 17th, 2018 at 10:12 AM ^
This is one nobody has mentioned. Patriots 20, Rams 17. That was the Rams' Greatest Show on Turf team, and they were something like 14 point favorites. In light of the Patriots' run of success and the Rams' failures since then, it gets forgotten what a stunning upset it was.
March 17th, 2018 at 11:03 AM ^
You guys have to divorce expectations from post hoc rationalizations. "Upset" is all about expectations. Ater it happens, of course you can rationalize why it happened. But when listing upsets, you have to look at the expectations before the event.
My flimsy, thinly-informed list:
1. Miracle on ice
2. Tyson v. Douglas
3. UMBC v. UVA
4. UM v. App State
March 17th, 2018 at 12:02 PM ^
No betting line? That's surprising. Is that standard practice for such games? Or, do you know why there was no line?
March 17th, 2018 at 11:40 PM ^
March 18th, 2018 at 12:44 AM ^
Gracias amigo
Some of the ranking algorithms include FBS and FCS though. Massey has an online archive--of course since it was the first game of the season he didn't have anything to go on but how he each team had finished 2005, but App St. was #42 in both divisions, a few notches ahead of Alabama and better than 7 of the 11 B1G teams, and he was predicting 33-17 on a neutral field. I doubt the spread would have been more than 21.
March 17th, 2018 at 11:10 AM ^
Then David vs. Goliath
who knew he was packing a slingshot?
March 17th, 2018 at 11:48 AM ^
#1---UM 24, OSU Team of the Century 12
#2---Miracle on Ice
#3---Najee enrolls at AL.
says the game was anticlimactic because UMBC beat VA so decisively; I don't see it that way. Even when it became clear that UMBC had the game won they continued to play brilliantly and sink shot after shot. My delight in the situation grew and grew.