The Journey of Underdog Teams: When Small Market Teams Defied the Odds

Nothing is more exciting in sports than a good upset. Throughout our time watching and playing sports, we’ve always identified a favorite and an underdog. An underdog is essentially a team (or player) not expected to be top tier or win their associated league, but sometimes they do, leading to extremely exciting moments in sports history.

Underdogs are called underdogs for a reason. Not only do most fans support the opposite team as the underdog, but the mathematical odds going into the game are completely against the underdog. So, in this article, we’ll highlight several times when small market teams defied the odds, including what sport it was and what the stakes of the game were.

3. Leicester City takes the Premier League title

One of the most unfathomable events in the history of not just English soccer, but soccer as a whole, was Leicester City taking the Premier League title after being promoted to the league just one year before. 

At the start of the 2015-2016 season, just having come out of the English Championship League (one division lower than the premier league), Leicester City was sitting at 5000:1 odds to win the entire EPL. In odds terms, this is a longshot and a half, as no one in their right mind would’ve expected them to overcome the likes of Arsenal, Manchester City, Tottenham, and Manchester United throughout 38 league games. 

At the time, Leicester City’s top scorer Jamie Vardy (24 goals – 2nd highest in the league) was working two jobs, one as a pro footballer and the other as a medical splint technician, so the fact that they not only came out strong but won the entire league make this one of the few moments in sports history when small market teams defied the odds.

2. NCAA March Madness UMBC (16) vs. Virginia (1)

Every year of the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament, we hope to see upsets like this. In the 2018 tournament, UMBC (16th seed) made the historical feat of defeating Virginia (1st seed), which had never been done before. 

Before the game, odds were sitting at 25:1 in favor of Virginia, and with the notion that no 16th seed had ever beaten a 1st seed before, fans weren’t expecting anything different. But, contrary to popular opinion, UMBC put the pedal to the metal, scoring 74 points compared to the Cavalier’s 54, effectively becoming the first upset ever in March Madness history where a 16 seed beat a first seat. 

Although, not long after, this same scenario would happen in 2023 with Fairleigh Dickinson (16) vs Purdue (1), where the Boilermakers were 21-point favorites. Despite the odds, Dickinson came out victorious, once again proving that small market teams can indeed, defy the odds.

1. The Miracle on Ice

The 1980 Lake Placid Olympic Winter Games would contain one of the most exhilarating hockey matches to this day, which you may have heard of, known as the “miracle on ice”. For the U.S.A. fans watching the game at this time, it truly was a miracle to behold. With Cold War tensions already in place, the United States men’s hockey team would face the four-time defending champions of the Soviet Union in the Olympic semifinal match. 

The Soviet team was mostly seasoned professionals, while members of the American team were closer to youthful rookies. No one could undermine the talent on both sides, but it was clear -350 odds that the Soviet Union would earn an easy five-peat against an underdog US side at +600 odds (some sportsbooks state 1000:1 odds, although Olympic sports betting was not as common during this time).

To everyone’s surprise, the US pulled off a stunning 4-3 win to head to the finals vs. Finland. They’d then win gold for their second time in Olympic hockey history against a team in the semifinals that no one would have dreamed of playing against, let alone defeating. While the odds may not best represent the feelings from this game, the United States men’s hockey team did pull off a seemingly impossible feat, not only going down as one of the best Olympic hockey teams in history but as the biggest underdog team to defy its odds with a miracle on ice.