Middle Tennessee State Shocks The World With First Round Victory Over Michigan State

Published on March 19th, 2016 2:29 pm EST
Brackets all over the world went up in flames on Friday after Middle Tennessee State shocked the world by defeating Michigan State 90-81 in the Men's NCAA Tournament.

Sure, upsets happen all of the time in the first and second rounds of the Men's NCAA Tournament - that is what makes the tournament so excited and enthralling.

Michigan State, however, was always seen as one of those sure bracket picks in the first couple of rounds. Teams like Duke can lose in the first round, but not Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans, right? Izzo is just too good of a coach and the Michigan State side is just too talented to lose in the first round - that is what most people thought, anyways, heading into Friday night's game against Middle Tennessee.

Michigan State entered the contest as 16 1/2 point favorites and practically nobody was predicting that they would lose. This is why the tournament is played, however, and this is why Warren Buffett was offering $1 billion in previous years for anybody with a perfect bracket - upsets can happen on any given day in "March Madness".

-

According to FiveThirtyEight.com, Middle Tennessee State's win over Michigan State was the third biggest upset in "March Madness" since 1985.

Norfolk State, which had a likelihood of just 1.6% to beat Missouri in 2012, holds the distinction as having posted the biggest upset of the last 31 years. They are followed by Coppin State, who defied the odds to defeat South Carolina in 1997.

-

Tom Izzo and Michigan State have had a history of outperforming in "March Madness", as they constantly went farther than what people had anticipated. This year, however, with many people predicting victory for the side, Michigan State and their vaunted coach ended up falling to the unheralded team from Middle Tennessee State. With that, the Spartans' hopes of winning were vanquished, along with many millions of tournament brackets across the world.

Source: FiveThirtyEight.com - Michigan State and the Biggest NCAA Tournament Upsets Ever

Recent Articles