Top 7 Upsets Since 2000

Due to some very random things happening so far this year, it’s time to look at the top upsets in sports since the year 2000.  If somehow Connecticut loses in the women’s NCAA Tournament, that would have to be in the top three.  Actually, if they would only win by less than 20 in any of the remaining games, that would have to be considered a decent upset.  Onto the list:

7. Diamondbacks over Yankees, 2001 World Series

The D-Backs had a great team that year, but this one was more of a case that it seemed very unlikely that the Yankees could lose.  They had won three straight World Series, were getting insane clutch homers from completely unlikely guys, and they had the greatest closer (and maybe player) in postseason history attempting to close out Game 7.  Even when the Diamondbacks won Game 7, it was on a weak pop fly to short, it just happened that Derek Jeter was playing in for the play at the plate.  It was so crazy that the Yankees had lost that their fans were flooding sports radio the next day still talking trash.

6. U.S. over Canada, 2010 Winter Olympics

Sure, with the 30-year anniversary of the win over Russia, some of the upset talk was over the top.  And Canada still won the game that really mattered, so the win ended up not meaning much, if anything.  But you still can’t deny that no one was giving the Americans much of a chance in hell of beating Canada, in Canada, with nearly every single person in Canada watching the game.  Watching it, it was one of those where you could clearly tell that Canada was better and the U.S. had no business winning, and they did anyways.  The gold medal loss probably hits #1 for me personally for a loss in a game or event that I never thought I could care that much about, taking the spot from that USA/Mexico soccer game from last summer.  There is a good chance that a Team USA World Cup game takes over that spot this summer too.

5. Jack Swagger, Money-in-the-Bank Ladder Match

This is a blatant attempt to discuss WrestleMania, though it was quite an upset.  Out in Arizona for spring training this past week, I jumped at the chance to see my first granddaddy-of-them-all.  Some things stood out: the division between those who love and hate John Cena is the Yankees/Red Sox of WWE (I lean towards the “hate” sector); there is no more diverse crowd than a WWE WrestleMania crowd; announcing the participants while in the ring together after their entrances is the best idea they’ve had in ten years; if they ever end Undertaker’s streak it better be to someone who is guaranteed to make them $100 billion.

4. Cardinals over Tigers, 2006 World Series

More than one writer picked the Tigers to beat the Cardinals that year “in three games.”  Cute.  It’s clear that the American League is superior to the National League, and probably by a decent margin, but some people take it to the extreme—it’s not like NL-players are hitting off of tees.  It was also another classic version of national writers not knowing anything about anything outside of conventional wisdom.  The Cardinals had their whole lineup out there for the first time in weeks, and had the best starting pitcher left in the playoffs, along with the best player.  It wasn’t nearly as big of an upset as the national media made it out to be, and nearly all rational baseball fans knew it.  Of course, had the Tiger pitching staff not made more errors in five games than they have probably made since, it would have been a different story.

3. Patriots over Rams, Superbowl XXXVI

I will compare this upset to the Duke over UNLV Final Four game in 1991.  Both were unspeakably amazing upsets at the time—the thought that the almighty UNLV could lose back then was similar to expecting a pterodactyl to swoop down and eat Jerry Tarkanian, and the Rams were 14-point favorites in the Superbowl.  Both had the lowest percentages of people outside of their opponents’ rooting towns thinking that they had a chance of losing.  Both also vaulted the upsetting team into a period of historic success: the Patriots to two more Superbowl titles, and Duke to several million Final Fours.  And finally, it’s crazy that both teams were once the feisty underdog that America was rooting for the knock off the mighty favorite, since Duke is easily the most hated NCAA team in the country, and an easy case can be made for the Pats to be the same in the NFL.

2. George Mason Final Four, 2006

It’s probably the greatest vengeance moment of the decade.  Billy Packer, who is missed for the same reason that WWE needs a big-time bad guy in wrestling right now, specifically calls out George Mason to the Selection Committee chairman on national television for Mason getting a bid into the tournament.  George Mason, as an 11-seed, then makes the Final Four, shooting around 70% along the way from the field.  Had they played Packer’s head like a bongo like Homer did to Mr. Burns, it would have been the greatest moment in sports history, and the most-played non-pop star music video You Tube clip ever.

1.    Northern Iowa over Kansas, 2010 NCAA Tournament

This was the most shocking NCAA Tournament upset since the aforementioned Duke-over-UNLV.  At the start of the tournament, three of four people on one of those panels chose Kansas to win over “the field.”  Nearly 50% of people in bracket pools nationwide took Kansas to win the entire thing.  The thought that the third-most famous team in Iowa could beat them didn’t even register with most people, who were merely keeping an eye on the game to see if their square hit at the end.  Here’s the question though: if Butler wins the whole thing, does that take this spot?  Scroll through the list of winners of the NCAA Tournament and you won’t find any random teams winning the thing—the closest thing is Marquette winning in 1977, but things have changed quite a bit since then.  The powerhouses dominate winning the tournament, which is a reason that you’ll be hearing Jimmy Chitwood’s name quite a bit this weekend, which, while annoying, isn’t the worst thing in the world.  Happy Final Four and Opening Day everyone!

---

Subscribe (for free!!) to our weekly sports podcast, deemed "incredible" by two out of three of our moms.

© JoeSportsFan.com, 2010. | Permalink | Tweet This