# Biggest sports upset of the past year? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [April 9, 2016, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-sports-upset-of-the-past-year/751720 "2016-04-09T22:12:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2016, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-sports-upset-of-the-past-year/751720/41 "2016-05-03T20:24:36Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > Had to revive this. > > Leicester City have now won the English Premier League. And they haven’t just nicked it, they’re 7 points ahead and have, by any subjective or objective criteria, been the best team. > > They were 5000-1 shots before the season started, relegation favourites and I have to put this forward as the biggest sporting upset ever, let alone for this year. I am struggling to think of anything more outrageous. Forest winning the league directly on promotion and then winning the European cup the season after is the closest I can think of. And I’d still rank that a way below Leicester in terms of upset - just based on things being a bit more even in those days and Forest having a superb manager at his absolute peak. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-sports-upset-of-the-past-year/751720/42 "2016-05-05T01:32:15Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > I don’t think there is a perfect example in USA sport as the promotion/relegation aspect of the European leagues allows a degree of “borderline” top level performance that you don’t get in the states. > That said, yours is a pretty good example. Leicester were borderline Premier league quality so if you can think of a AAA baseball team that are borderline MLB quality (but still likely to finish at the bottom) then yes, that’s a decent yardstick. I agree here, it’s a close analogy that **Barkis is Willin’** brings up … but not quite spot-on … GO FOXES !!! ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-sports-upset-of-the-past-year/751720/43 "2016-05-05T03:45:43Z")
I suppose what is so remarkable is the stratified nature of teams even within the Premier League and the teams in the top strata tend to pretty much have their pick of the players from the teams with the lower strata and Leicester pretty much inhabited the lowest stratum as a recently-promoted team who had struggled the previous season. Trying to compare it to American sports is difficult due to the measures taken to create parity in American leagues, but I’d guess the nearest comparison would be a minor league baseball team with players, none of whom (except maybe the odd one) thought likely to make the majors, sprinkled with a couple of MLB journeymen winning the World Series. ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2016, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-sports-upset-of-the-past-year/751720/44 "2016-05-05T04:06:42Z")
> [@Busy\_Scissors](#): > > Forest winning the league directly on promotion and then winning the European cup the season after is the closest I can think of. And I’d still rank that a way below Leicester in terms of upset - just based on things being a bit more even in those days and Forest having a superb manager at his absolute peak. Nottingham Forest is similar in some respects, but as you say the title race was more open in those days and in fact Brian Clough at the point had already done a remarkably similar thing with Derby County a few years previously when they won the title 2 seasons after he got them promoted and then he got them to the European Cup semi-final. Talking of great managers, as I have said previously, Alf Ramsey’s Ipswich in the 50s winning the title at the first time of asking, having only made the 2nd tier for the first time in their history 7 years previously, is probably the nearest thing to Leicester in English football. Again though the league was more open and the talent wasn’t concentrated as much as it was. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/biggest-sports-upset-of-the-past-year/751720.md?page=2)