Was Louisville’s rout of 3rd-ranked Florida the biggest upset ever in BCS? Research says … yes

Tweet

Mail

Print

In a lot of ways, Louisville’s shocking upset of Florida as 14-point underdogs in the Sugar Bowl on Wednesday night called to mind the greatest upsets of BCS past.

Boise State knocking off Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl and Utah manhandling Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl are probably the two biggest upsets we all immediately think of, but even those were single-digit point spreads (barely).

In fact, before last night, the largest upsets in BCS history had come in the title game. Oklahoma beat Florida State 13-2 as 11-point underdogs in the 2001 Orange Bowl, and two years later Ohio State memorably upset Miami 31-24 as 12-point underdogs in the 2003 Fiesta Bowl.

But now there’s a new upset to add to the list, and this one will probably be remembered for the way Louisville surprisingly had no issues moving the ball on Florida’s star-studded defense.

There have been 65 BCS bowl games played, with two more on deck for Thursday night and next Monday. Of those 65 games, an underdog of at least a touchdown has won the game outright 12 times, dating all the way back to Wisconsin’s upset of UCLA in the 1999 Rose Bowl, the first BCS game ever played.

* * *

LIST OF BIGGEST UPSETS IN BCS BOWL HISTORY

*Indicates that the bowl served as the national championship.

Related posts

• No need to wait: BetOnline releases college football point spreads for 44 opening-week games
• The odds are against Manti Te’o publicly admitting that he knew girlfriend Lennay Kekua was fake
• College Football Top 25 for 2013: A very early look at next year’s contenders based on BCS futures odds
• Beware of Trendy Underdogs: Alabama-Notre Dame spread moving up despite public backing the Irish
• Bowl games by the numbers: Big Ten, CUSA among big winners; Unders hitting at 58% rate so far

Tags:   BCS Bowl upsets   |   College Football