The Year in Upsets

No matter who you are, it always seems like the popular choice to cheer for David to slay the mighty Goliath.

Unless Goliath happens to be your team, sports fans tend to sway toward hoping a big upset occurs, leaving the sports world shocked.

Since the unscripted drama in sports is what makes them so darn great, I figured it would only be appropriate to take a look back and remind you of the best upsets of 2014—hopefully these don't bring back any bad memories of drunken tears or lost money.

Stanford Ends Kansas' Season

This wasn't how it was supposed to go for star freshman Andrew Wiggins of the Kansas Jayhawks in his first NCAA tournament.

Widely-considered the best prep player since LeBron James going into the year, some believed Wiggins could lift his Jayhawks team to a national title run, a la Carmelo Anthony with Syracuse in 2003.

The veteran Stanford Cardinal squashed that, though.

Limiting the talented frosh to just four points the entire game, 10th-seed Stanford knocked out the No. 2-seeded Kansas in just its second game in the tourney, ending its hopes of a national championship and, ultimately, the college career of Wiggins.

Virginia Tech Ruins Ohio State's Home Opener

Jay LaPrete/Associated Press

As someone who has grown up as an Ohio State Buckeyes fan, the home loss against the Virginia Tech Hokies is one that has stuck with me.

Nearly costing the team a spot in the college football playoff, the unranked Hokies beat the then-No. 8 Bucks 35-21 a week after losing at home to East Carolina, making this loss for OSU a bit more embarrassing.

Sure, it was the first home game for freshman starting quarterback J.T. Barrett—who was playing behind an offensive line still trying to gel—but the loss was bad on all sides of the ball for the Buckeyes, showing they weren't quite the team they ended up being by the end of the season.

Germany Slams Brazil in the World Cup

OK, so in comparison of others on this list, the Germany men's national soccer team beating host country Brazil isn't as shocking—until you recall just how out of hand things got.

Rather than compete in a classic match filled with high intensity and drama, the Germans mowed the pitch with the Brazilians, humiliating them to the tune of five goals in the first 29 minutes, ultimately winning 7-1.

In a match between two supposed soccer powers, the lopsided score was something World Cup fans never saw coming—which is the definition of an upset in my book.

Ole Miss Changes the Tide Versus Alabama

Seeing how the Ole Miss Rebels went into their matchup with the No. 3-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide ranked No. 11 in the country, it wasn't the biggest upset of the college football season.

But then we should all be reminded this was Ole Miss.

Historically speaking, the Rebels hadn't been a great team over the past decade or so, failing to make a serious run in the SEC or national championship picture.

So while the team was improved and gained national attention following their 23-17 victory, I'm sure there were plenty of college football fans who thought it was going to be the Tide being their usual, dominant selves right up until the clock read triple zeros and the Rebels were on top.

Shaun White Stumbles in Sochi

When it comes to polarizing athletes in a specific sport, there hasn't been any bigger than Shaun White in the world of snowboarding, as he has built an empire by performing on the highest level.

Going to the Sochi Winter Olympics early in 2014 with the goal of earning his second Olympic gold medal in the Halfpipe event, White never seemed to get his board beneath him, falling during his second run, which, in effect, knocked him out of the medal picture.

One of the most beloved action sports stars ever, White found himself on the outside looking in at an event that, for all intents and purposes, he helped popularize on the Olympic stage.

Syracuse's Win Streak Ends Abruptly

After starting the season with 26-straight victories, the Syracuse Orange welcomed a 6-19 Boston College team to the Carrier Dome fully expecting to continue their undefeated season.

But as us fans know, nothing is ever guaranteed in sports.

Then the No. 1-ranked team in the country, 'Cuse couldn't put away the Eagles, allowing them to hang around long enough that BC had more points than the home team when the clock expired.

It was a shocking upset few—if anyone—had seen coming.

Arizona Slows Down Oregon

The Oregon Ducks are known to have one of the most explosive offenses in college football, which, unsurprisingly, led quarterback Marcus Mariota to the Heisman Trophy this season.

But while facing the Arizona Wildcats on a Thursday night game in October, the Ducks found out that they didn't have enough to beat the solid defense the Cats brought to the gridiron.

Ranked No. 2 in the country and favored by 24 points, the Ducks lost at home to unranked Zona, 31-24, shaking up the college football rankings at the time.

Of course, the Ducks did get revenge against the Wildcats by blowing them out in the Pac-12 title game and solidifying their spot in the top four of the college football playoff. But for at least one night, the Ducks found out their high-octane offense could be halted.

Mercer Sends Duke Packing

Anytime a No. 14 seed takes down a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament, it's something that gets the attention of sports fans.

That's because in the history of the tournament, the higher seed had gone 99-17 against the lower seed, making the probability of the Mercer Bears beating the Duke Blue Devils extremely rare.

It's too bad the Bears don't care too much about history, though.

Shocking the blue-blooded program, Mercer defeated prized Duke freshman Jabari Parker and his teammates with a 78-71 victory, sending the Blue Devils packing a lot earlier than anyone had expected.

Kei Nishikori Ousts Novak Djokovic from U.S. Open

Even the most casual tennis fan knows the name Novak Djokovic and the amount of success that he has had in Grand Slams over the past several years.

And entering a semifinal match against Kei Nishikori in the U.S. Open, many believed that the No. 1-ranked Serbian would easily find his way into his fifth-straight final at Flushing Meadows.

Thanks to blistering heat and crafty play from the then-24-year-old Nishikori—who had played in back-to-back, five-set matches to even reach that point—Djokovic was prevented the chance to hoist another Grand Slam championship, losing in four sets to the eventual runner-up of the tourney.

Marin Cilic Crushes Roger Federer

As absolutely shocking as the aforementioned upset of Novak Djokovic by Kei Nishikori in the semis of 2014's U.S. Open, Croation Marin Cilic's straight-set victory over 17-time Grand Slam champ Roger Federer might be even more insane.

Coming in as the 14th seed, Cilic dominated Federer from start to finish, overpowering the No. 2 seed with a strong service game and soft touch from the baseline.

The unlikely matchup of Cilic and Nishikori in the U.S. Open final was one of the many shockers in sports in 2014, as the Croatian earned his first Grand Slam title.

New Jersey Institute of Technology Shocks Michigan

Let's be honest here, prior to some school named New Jersey Institute of Technology upsetting the, then-No. 17-ranked, Michigan Wolverines in Ann Arbor, most of us had no idea what the school was about.

Hell, even the acronym NJIT was probably foreign to most of us.

That's why the 72-70 victory the team was able to pull off against the Wolverines is so incredibly shocking; no one would have ever believed it would ever happen.

Unfortunately, it did. And it happened to be the best upset in college hoops thus far in the 2014-15 season—even if it did humiliate the maize and blue.

The Kansas City Royals Reach the World Series

I know that most of these upsets are of the single-game variety, but who's to say that the season-long success of the Kansas City Royals wasn't the greatest upset in sports in 2014?

While not completely written off prior to the 2014 season starting, the Royals did only enter the campaign with Vegas odds of 35/1 to win the World Series, making their postseason run all the more surprising.

More than that, two teams—the Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Indians—were predicted to finish ahead of K.C. in the AL Central, leaving a team destined for third in their own division as the team representing the American League in the World Series.

Sure, they didn't win it. But in a sport that typically requires some sort of high-priced free agents, what the Royals did was absolutely remarkable.