The Sweet 16 round begins today, and there are two 6's, a 9, 10, 11, and 12 seeds remaining. A 1 seed and a 2 seed have already been eliminated, with the obvious notable being Northern Iowa upsetting Kansas. After that game ended, sports analysts were debating if that was the most shocking upset ever. I've decided to look at previous upsets in recent March Madness history to the best of my recollection to see if UNI/Kansas was indeed the biggest shocker ever.
2008 - In a year where all 1 seeds made the Final Four for the first time ever, the first round in particular was highly entertaining, with two 12 vs. 13 seeds being set up for the second round. 12 seed Villanova and 13 seed Siena took down Clemson and Vanderbilt to set up one match, and Western Kentucky over Drake and San Diego over UConn setting up another. As great as these upsets were, Clemson and Vanderbilt have a history of choking in the tournament, and Drake was overseeded, or perhaps purposely placed in the 5 spot to keep the 5/12 curse alive. The only true shocker here was UConn. Even with these upsets, the big story of this year was 10 seed Davidson making the Elite Eight and coming so close to upsetting (you guessed it) Kansas, losing by a mere two points. Everybody knows about the rise of Stephen Curry, so let's move on.
2005 - Also known as the year Illinois failed us all, this year was full of upsets. (12) Milwaukee over (5) Alabama and (4) Boston College, (11) UAB over (6) LSU, (7) West Virginia over (2) Wake Forest, (10) NC State over (2) UConn, (13) Vermont over (4) Syracuse, and (14) Bucknell over (3) Kansas. This also had a 6 and 7 seed in the Elite 8, which is always nice to see. Out of those NC State was the biggest shocker of all, having the most regular season losses entering the tournament at 13 and yet making the Sweet 16.
2004 - This year has in my opinion the 2nd biggest upset of the decade, with a particularly weak (9) UAB team defeating overall 1 seed Kentucky in the second round by one point, busting millions of brackets including mine. UAB is in a weaker conference and had more losses than UNI did this year, and there was much discussion about whether this year's Kansas team really had the chemistry needed to win a championship. Case in point, UNI/Kansas, as shocking as it was, is only the 3rd most shocking upset. So what is #1?
2006 - I still remember the commentary just after the final Elite Eight game ended, it was short and sweet, "Show me the bracket that has this Final Four." In 2006, the last four teams remaining were (2) UCLA, (3) Florida, (4) LSU, and the ultimate cinderella team, (11) George Mason. GM over UConn in the Elite Eight is one of the greatest upsets I've ever seen, as UConn was by far the heavy favorite to win the championship this year. Also, George Mason had to go through Michigan State and UNC to get here (they lucked out of facing Tennessee due to Wichita State defeating them). It's only fitting that the best tournament ever (arguably) had the best upset as well.
