ESPN.com · Sep 17, 2025
The five factors for Group of 5 upsets
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We all have our favorites. Tastes vary. Maybe you're a ULM-Alabama 2007 person. Maybe last year's Northern Illinois-Notre Dame game hit your taste buds just right. Maybe you're a hipster who prefers the forgotten classics, such as 2017 Troy-LSU, or 2005 TCU-Oklahoma, or 2022 App State-Texas A&M.
Each season gives us about 110 games between mid-major teams and power-conference foes, and although not all of them are classics (or even upsets), the mid-majors tend to win about 20 or so of them each year. Three weeks into 2025, we've seen nine victories for teams in the Group of 5 conferences. (Granted, two were against UCLA, but they still technically count.)
