We thought for a while that Bowling Green over Minnesota in Week 4 would be the biggest upset of the season. The Louisiana Monroe Warhawks topped it in Week 7 with an upset victory over projected first-round pick Malik Willis and the Liberty Flames. The Warhawks were a 33-point underdog.
Calum Sutherland's 53-yard field goal broke a 28-all tie and sent the Warhawks to the most shocking upset of the season. After going 0-10 last year, UL Monroe improved to 3-3 with the win over Liberty, the second big upset of the season for ULM. They also beat Troy back on Sept. 25 in Week 4 as a 23.5-point pup.
In the ranks of major upsets, it will take one of epic proportions to unseat Howard, who beat UNLV back in 2017 as a 45-point underdog. The others that rank in the top five of our database are:
- Stanford (+ 38.5) over USC in 2017
- Syracuse (+ 36.5) over Louisville in 2017
- Texas State (+ 36.5) over Houston in 2012
- UTEP (+ 36) over BYU in 1985
- Temple (+ 36) over Virginia Tech in 1998
UL Monroe's win is the seventh upset from an underdog of 21 or more points this season.
The others are:
- Bowling Green (+ 30.5) over Minnesota 14-10
- Duquesne (+ 29) over Ohio 28-26
- Jacksonville State (+ 28) over Florida State 20-17
- Louisiana Monroe (+ 23.5) over Troy 29-16
- Montana (+ 22.5) over No. 20 Washington 13-7
- E. Tenn. St. (+ 21) over Vanderbilt 23-3
The biggest FBS vs. FBS upset in 2020 was Kansas State over Oklahoma as a 28-point underdog. The biggest FBS vs. FBS upset of 2019 was Illinois over Wisconsin as a 28.5-point underdog. This is the second outright win by a 30 or more point underdog since Morgan State over NC A&T in 2018. It is the second one in a game with two FBS teams since Liberty beat Baylor in 2017 as a 30.5-point underdog.
We could very well get some more big upsets this season, as we’ve seen a lot of inconsistency from teams to this point, but we may not see one this big.