Tag: upsets

BYU suddenly clinging to bowl eligibility hopes

Nobody saw this coming in Provo this fall…

After beating Baylor in overtime on the second Saturday of September, [autotag]BYU[/autotag] was 2-0 and knocking on the door of the top 10 in both the USA TODAY Coaches Poll and AP Poll.  Things since then haven’t gone according to plan for the Cougars, however.

BYU was routed the following week at Oregon before rebounding with wins over Wyoming and Utah State to close September.

The Cougars haven’t won since.

Notre Dame largely controlled the Shamrock Series contest against BYU before letting them back in the game late before holding on for a 28-20 victory.  Since then Arkansas (52-35) and Liberty (41-14) both put whoopings on the Cougars.

BYU closed their October to-forget with another loss, this one a 27-24 defeat at the hands of East Carolina as they allowed over six yards per carry in their latest loss that puts them at 4-5 overall.

Notre Dame fans can relate to BYU supporters as some outlets (I’m looking at you, USA TODAY Sports College Football Preview) had the Cougars in the preseason top 10 but with just three games to play a bowl game is far from a sure thing.

BYU travels to Boise State next week before finally reaching their bye week.  They close the year with games against Utah Tech (yes, that’s a real program) and Stanford.  The Cougars will have to go 2-1 over their last three to become bowl-eligible, something few if any saw coming this preseason.

Not that Notre Dame is in a position to compare their best wins to others for anything of real significance this season, but that victory over a ranked opponent at the start of the month looks more and more like another close call against a mediocre foe with each passing week.

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Notre Dame-USC: Pregame Social Media Buzz

If a 1 is the 2016 conclusion and 10 is pregame for the ’05 classic – what number of excitement are you ahead of tonight’s kickoff?

Notre Dame and USC are set to battle this evening with a ton on the line.  A win by Notre Dame would mean a couple of things: playing spoiler to their biggest rival in terms of the College Football Playoff and giving themselves a chance at extending their streak of having 10 or more wins in a season to six, if they are to go and win a bowl game.

For USC it’s pretty simple:  win tonight against Notre Dame and win next week in the Pac-12 championship game and in all likelihood they’ll end up in the playoff, thanks to Michigan dominating Ohio State on Saturday.

With all of that in mind, here is the pregame buzz ahead of Notre Dame-USC:

5 candidates to pull off the next massive upset at the 2022 World Cup

Which nation is on upset watch as the World Cup continues to surprise?

It feels pretty safe to say no one really expected Saudi Arabia or Japan to pull off massive World Cup upsets on consecutive days.

As Saudi Arabia (+1800) celebrated their historic victory over title-favorite Argentina with a national holiday Wednesday, Japan (+600) was putting the finishing touches on a bonkers comeback against a Germany club that got a bit too comfortable in the second half of its tournament opener.

So let’s trust that the World Cup operates by the rule of three and look at some of the upcoming matches to see which long-shot can pull off the next stunning upset.

Fortunately — or unfortunately — for bettors, there are plenty of options.

College football Week 12 scoreboard: Narrow escapes and stunning upsets

Another INSANE week of college football. Get up to speed here!

Well, we’ve made it to the final week of the college football regular season but not without an insane day of college football.  Week 12 didn’t feature a ton of marquee matchups going in.  Heck, College Gameday was at Montana-Montana State of all places.  It wound up being another insane day of college football with major postseason implications.

Four of the nation’s top five teams were very much on the ropes Saturday.  Who survived thanks to late field goals and who was seemingly eliminated from College Football Playoff contention?

Here are all of your top 25 scores from a crazy Week 12 of college football!

Notre Dame 35, No. 4 Clemson 14: Numbers that told the story

This game wasn’t as close as the 35-14 final score indicates. Really, it wasn’t.

Notre Dame played far and away their best game of the 2022 season Saturday night as they destroyed No. 4 Clemson 35-14.  The win officially makes Notre Dame bowl eligible as dates with Navy, Boston College, and USC remain before the season’s end.

Notre Dame clearly dominated on the scoreboard but how much did they really dominate this game?  I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn when I say the final score was closer than the actual game.  Notre Dame kicked the living stink out of Clemson, something Dabo Swinney even admitted after the contest.

Just how bad, or in Notre Dame’s case good, was it?  Here are a handful of numbers that tell the story.

Notre Dame upsets No. 4 Clemson: Fantastic photos from memorable night

A great win only made better by great photos!

In what has been an up-and-down year for Notre Dame under first-year head coach [autotag]Marcus Freeman[/autotag], Saturday night’s 35-14 victory over No. 4 Clemson was a relief of sorts.  No, it doesn’t erase the inexplicable losses to Marshall or Stanford, but it does feel like it gets things back to par, if not even a little better for his first season.

The win was Notre Dame’s first as an unranked team over a top-five ranked squad since Allen Pinkett helped the Irish to upset Dan Marino and Pitt in 1982.  There aren’t any guarantees but that game certainly had the feel of the tides turning for Freeman at Notre Dame.

During the memorable night, some truly phenomenal camera work was done by Matt Cashore.  Cashore captures Notre Dame, both the football team and the campus, better than anyone else.  Check out his best photos from Saturday night’s victory below.

College Football bettors got absolutely crushed in Week 2 as upsets and chaos reigned

Let us never speak of Week 2 ever again.

If you woke up on Saturday thinking Week 2 of the college football season wasn’t going to be anything special, shame on you.

If you woke up and hammered all the favorites—and let’s be honest, many of us did—you’re most likely already feeling that shame.

What was supposed to be a week of cupcake games for many of the elite programs in the country was anything but for bettors as multiple Top 25 teams failed to cover. A few even lost outright in incredibly shocking fashion.

No one was prepared to go to bed on Saturday night in a world where Kansas is 2-0 and No. 8 Notre Dame is 0-2. It’s officially been deemed a Blood Week. One that has sportsbooks cackling and the rest of the public grieving.

Let’s run through some of the abhorrent madness together.

When the entire world was backing Alabama (-20.5) in both the first half and to cover the spread, the Crimson Tide somehow just barely escaped Texas with a one-point victory.

No. 15 Miami (FL) saw 77 percent of all bets and 81 percent of the money wagered on the Canes (-26) to cover. Miami won by 23 instead. No 7 Oklahoma (-31) only won by 30 while receiving 89 percent of the action.

No. 9 Baylor had 61 percent of all bets to cover +2.5 against No. 21 BYU. The Bears lost by six.

Just an absolutely brutal week across the board that reminds us to never, ever doubt Week 2 again. No matter how light the schedule looks.

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Purdue knocks off No. 2 Iowa

Down goes No. 2!

Back on September 18 Notre Dame improved to 3-0 on the then young season with a 27-13 victory over Purdue in South Bend.  It wasn’t the prettiest or most impressive of performances but it was a win nonetheless.

Right now Iowa is wishing they had an unimpressive win against the Boilermakers instead of what actually happened as Purdue walked into Kinnick Stadium on Saturday and handed No. 2 Iowa a 24-7 defeat, Iowa’s first of the year.

Aidan O’Connell threw for 375 yards and two scores for Purdue while wide receiver David Bell hauled in 11 receptions for 240 yards and a touchdown.

The Boilermakers are now 4-2 on the year while Iowa falls to 6-1.

Related:

Four changes Notre Dame should make this bye week

Ohio State AD defends E.J. Liddell after he received vicious threats following NCAA tournament loss

We don’t deserve sports.

Sports are never serious enough to threaten someone’s life over. There’s absolutely no place for that in any of this.

Ohio State’s upset loss in the tournament to Oral Robert’s Golden Eagles on Friday in a close game 75-72. Ohio State was the obvious betting favorite as the 2 seed. They beat this team nine times out of 10 — the exception just so happened to play out on Friday.

And that’s fine! Such is the nature of the tournament. A lot of this is random. These are amateur athletes playing in a bubble in the middle of the pandemic. There are so many more important things going on in the world right now.

Yet, some fans still felt it was necessary to send death threats to Ohio State star forward E.J. Liddell after the loss.

It got so bad that Ohio State AD Gene Smith had to come out and defend his player.

“The threatening social media attack E.J. Liddell faced after the game yesterday is appalling and will not be tolerated. To the few of you who have chosen to inappropriately rail against our players on social media, stop. Hate and derision have no place in Buckeye nation or in civil society. If you cross the line and threaten our players, you will be hearing from the authorities. That I promise you…I have nothing but love and respect for E.J. He epitomizes all that we hope for in our student athletes.”

It’s a shame that Smith even had to make this statement. It’s an even bigger shame that fans think it’s OK to send anyone — let alone an amateur athlete — death threats.

Liddell and the other athletes on the team put their health at risk by participating in this tournament in the middle of a pandemic and this is the thanks they get.

This is shameful. It has no place in sports. And if people are going to act this way after one silly loss, then we don’t really deserve sports at all.

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