Heading into mid-November, most college sports fans are still focusing much of their attention on watching and following their favorite college football teams. However, there have been some great games already being played in NCAA Basketball between ranked teams and near upsets of power five conference teams almost occurring. Then there were the games where mid-major schools were able to pull off some impressive upsets.
Even though COVID-19 protocols have eased, allowing fans to attend games nationwide, it appears that many arenas are not at 100% capacity. Some fans have more pressing matters on their minds as they may be preparing for the upcoming holiday season and some fans just don’t feel fully comfortable attending games where thousands of people are attending. Many college basketball teams are starting to attend games in-person and are excited to see their favorite teams compete up close and personal as opposed to just watching them on tv or on their phones.
Last season during week one play, there were more upsets than anticipated. Week one play this season in college basketball once again saw some big-name programs losing not only to less talented opponents but in some cases, losing by double digits on their home court.
As basketball programs were able to have more freedom and time to work with one another this off-season with fewer COVID-19 restrictions in place, it is understandable that some mid-major programs are off to a faster start as they are more prepared for this season.
Many mid-major programs prior to the beginning of last season, may not have had the facilities, staff, and resources to prepare for the COVID-19 restricted season in comparison to power five schools. This season, however, you have not only seen upsets by mid-major schools over well-known college programs but also near upsets occurring as well.
The number of well-known basketball teams and power five conference programs mentioned below would have been more but teams like West Virginia, North Carolina, NC State, Ohio State, Indiana, Rutgers, Maryland, Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon State, USC, Georgia, and Texas A&M won single-digit games with some of them being decided by only one point, and some teams needed overtime to win their non-conference games against inferior opponents from lesser-known division one schools.
Let’s begin to take a look back at the biggest upsets by conference of the well-known teams that lost to mid-major teams in non-conference play during week one competition.