Year in review: The biggest upsets of 2021

The Buckeyes were 16-point favorites against the 15th-seeded Golden Eagles, but they were no match for Kevin Obanor and Max Abmas, who teamed up to push Oral Roberts to the win, in the process making them the ninth 15 seed to win a first-round game, and the first since Middle Tennessee over Michigan State in 2016. Obanor scored 30 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and Abmas, the country's leading scorer, added 29. 

Joe Pleasant's pair of free throws with two seconds left helped put the finishing touches on a comeback that saw 14th-seeded Abilene Christian top the third-seeded Longhorns after being down nine points early in the second half. Pleasant and Coryon Mason paced the Wildcats with 11 points apiece, and guard Damien Daniels chipped in with five steals in the game. 

Technically, the Cavaliers entered the 2021 NCAA Tournament as the defending champions, as the tourney was canceled in 2020. They only lasted a game in their title defense, falling to the 13th-seeded Bobcats thanks to a balanced effort led by Ohio guard Jason Preston, who rose from completely unknown and unrecruited high school player to leader of Ohio's attack. Preston had 11 points, 13 rebounds, and 8 assists, and Ben Vander Plas led the Bobcats with 17 points. Virginia fell victim yet again to cold shooting, going just 21-60 from the floor. 

NCAA women's basketball isn't often a hotbed for upsets; the top teams are usually just too strong. That's why it's worth noting what 13th-seeded Wright State did to Arkansas, sneaking past the fourth-seeded Razorbacks 66-62 in the first round of the tournament. The Raiders got a 26-point effort from guard Angel Baker, who played all 40 minutes, and they needed almost all of it to overcome 27 points from Arkansas' Chelsea Dungee. Wright State was one of just three double-digit seeds to win in the first round of the tournament. 

The 11th-seeded Bruins came up one game short of the national championship game, losing to Gonzaga in an all-time tournament classic. Their win to get there wasn't exactly a work of art, but it was still a big upset. UCLA dumped top-seeded Michigan with a supreme defensive effort, topping the Wolverines 51-49. Johnny Juzang delivered a clutch performance, scoring 28 points - no other player on either side had more than 11 - to pace UCLA to victory.

The Bears existed in Gonzaga's shadow all season, but when they finally had a chance to prove they belonged with the undefeated, favored Bulldogs, Scott Drew's team seized it, jumping out to a 9-0 lead and never looking back en route to a dominant 86-70 championship triumph. Jared Butler paced Baylor with 22 points and 7 assists, while guards Macio Teague and Davion Mitchell chipped in with 19 and 15, respectively. 

Williams was seeded seventh, and by the fourth round of the French Open, all six seeds ahead of her had lost. It looked like she had a strong chance at picking up her 24th Grand Slam singles title, but Rybakina, the 21st seed, had other ideas. She took it to Williams in the first set, winning 6-3, then succeeded whether others have so often failed, and withstood pressure from Williams in the second set to win 7-5 and claim the straight-sets victory.

Jacksonville State, an FCS program located in northern Alabama, had never beaten an FBS school when it rolled into Doak Campbell Stadium, but after a thrilling final-play touchdown, the Gamecocks had not only their first FBS win but a victory over a Power 5 school. Jacksonville State came in a 27.5-point underdog but exited a winner after Damond Philyaw-Johnson's 59-yard touchdown catch, one that saw him beat two tacklers over the last 20 yards to get to the end zone.

The Dukes, 28.5-point underdogs, notched their first win over an FBS team in school history with a 28-26 win over the Bobcats. Duquesne's win wasn't fluky, either. The Dukes outgained Ohio 362-307, possessed the football for 41:02, and had 26 first downs to just 15 for Ohio. Duquesne had just three drives in the second half, but they were all at least 10 plays and 66 yards and yielded 17 points. The historic victory was sealed after the Dukes held Ohio on what would have been a tying two-point conversion. 

Djokovic is clearly the most powerful force in men's tennis, and some feel he is the greatest player of all time. Medvedev cared little about that when the two met in the U.S. Open finals. Medvedev took it to Djokovic right from the start of the match and never blinked, winning 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 to secure his first Grand Slam title, while also denying the Serbian star in his quest to become the first man since Rod Laver in 1969 to win all four Grand Slams in one season, as well as break his Grand Slam career tie with Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. 

Rodgers and the Packers look like one of the NFL's best teams, but in the season opener, they looked like one of the worst. New Orleans forced three turnovers, two of them Rodgers interceptions, and Jameis Winston threw five touchdowns on just 14 completions, as the Saints were never challenged. That the game was played in Jacksonville because of Hurricane Ida made the whole thing even more surreal.

Minnesota came into their game with Bowling Green a 30.5-point favorite, but left a shocked loser, as the Falcons held firm defensively long enough to get the go-ahead score with 31 seconds left in the third quarter, then picked off Minnesota twice in the fourth quarter to seal the win and spoil the Gophers' homecoming. The loss broke Minnesota's streak of 21 straight non-conference wins, which was the longest in the country entering the game.

Hardly anyone beats Alabama, and even fewer teams do it when their starting quarterback is out. The Aggies, 18-point underdogs, bucked that trend, with Zach Calzada stepping in to play the role of hero, going 21-of-31 for 285 yards and 3 touchdowns, and leading two late drives that brought Texas A&M back from a late 38-31 deficit, and led to a game-winning 28-yard field goal by Seth Small as time expired. The game also marked the first time Nick Saban had ever lost to a former assistant, as he had been 24-0 in such situations coming into the contest.

The concept of 15 minutes of fame has applied to few players as much as it did the Jets' White. Making his first NFL start, White torched Cincinnati for 405 yards and 3 touchdowns and led New York to a 34-31 win over the Bengals. White's big game was the Jets' first 400-yard passing performance since 2000, and the first by a first-time starter since Cam Newton in 2011. What's more, White looked more comfortable than rookie Zach Wilson ever had. Any chance of a quarterback controversy was dashed when White threw four interceptions just two weeks later.

Urban Meyer's tenure in Jacksonville was a complete disaster, of course, but even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while. Jacksonville prevailed in a supremely ugly defensive battle, winning 9-6 over the Bills, who were favored by 14.5 points. Josh Allen - the Jaguars' ace pass rusher, that is - was the star, making history by being the first player to record a sack of a quarterback with the same name. Allen also added an interception, and Meyer had a brief moment of glory in an otherwise horrible, abbreviated tenure.

The Jayhawks, perennially the Big 12's worst program, staggered into Austin with a 1-8 record, and as 31-point underdogs. Hours later, they left with a memorable 57-56 overtime triumph, one that ended on a successful two-point conversion pass to a freshman walk-on fullback, Jared Casey, who hadn't caught a pass all season. Astonishingly, the win also snapped Kansas' 56-game conference road losing streak, which dated back to 2008.

Nunes, who came in having won 12 fights in a row, was a heavy favorite to retain her bantamweight title entering the fight, but Peña, nearly a 7-to-1 underdog, survived a shaky first round to dominate the second round of the fight, connecting often with jabs, making a tiring Nunes miss repeatedly, and eventually locking in a rear-naked choke, at which point Nunes quickly tapped. The result was immediately viewed by many as the biggest upset in MMA history. 

Louisville hadn't lost a match all season and was the prohibitive favorite to win the national championship, but the Badgers, who lost 3-0 to Louisville on September 18th, had other ideas. The Cardinals had lost just one set in their first four matches of the tournament but were locked into a tight, back-and-forth affair with the Huskers, who alternated set victories until claiming the decisive fifth set. 

The point spread for this game wasn't astronomical - Tampa Bay was around a 9 or 9.5-point favorite - but the way the contest played out was shocking. New Orleans continued its regular-season mastery of the Brady since his move to Tampa Bay, blanking the Buccaneers 9-0. The game broke Brady's 255-game streak of not being shut out as a starting quarterback and stands as one of the worst performances of his career. 

The Lions came into their Week 15 matchup with Arizona 1-11-1, but only a week removed from their first win of the year against the Vikings. Still, they were 13-point home underdogs against the Cardinals. Someone should have told Detroit that, because they jumped out to a 17-0 halftime lead, stretched it all the way to 27-6 in the early fourth quarter, and cruised to a 30-12 domination that left Arizona, and the rest of the NFL world, shell-shocked. Jared Goff threw for 216 yards and 3 touchdowns, and Craig Reynolds paced Detroit's ground game with 112 yards on 26 carries.