Updated Saturday, September 5, 2026. Point spreads are as archived by ESPN and BetLabSports; games from before 2005 generally have no reliable archived line. For this week’s upsets, see our weekly upset tracker.
There are two ways to measure an upset. One is the point spread, which turns a shock into a number: nobody has ever beaten a bigger favorite than Howard did in 2017. The other is the moment, the kind of result that gets replayed every September: Appalachian State in the Big House, Vanderbilt carrying a goalpost to the Cumberland River. This page covers both.
| Spread | Result | Date |
|---|---|---|
| +45 | Howard 43, UNLV 40 (at UNLV) | Sept. 2, 2017 |
| +39 to +40.5 | Stanford 24, No. 2 USC 23 (at USC) | Oct. 6, 2007 |
| +38.5 | Syracuse 38, Louisville 35 (at Louisville) | Sept. 22, 2007 |
| +36.5 | Texas State 30, Houston 13 | Sept. 1, 2012 |
| +33 to +35 | Liberty 48, Baylor 45 (at Baylor) | Sept. 2, 2017 |
| +33 | Appalachian State 34, No. 5 Michigan 32 (at Michigan) | Sept. 1, 2007 |
| +32.5 | UL Monroe 31, Liberty 28 (at Liberty) | Oct. 16, 2021 |
| +31 | New Mexico 31, Boise State 24 (at Boise State) | Nov. 14, 2015 |
| +31 | Portland State 24, Washington State 17 (at Washington State) | Sept. 5, 2015 |
| +28 | Northern Illinois 16, No. 5 Notre Dame 14 (at Notre Dame) | Sept. 7, 2024 |
| +28.5 | UMass 37, Rutgers 21 (at Rutgers), the biggest upset of 2026 so far | Sept. 3, 2026 |
Where sources disagree on the closing line (Stanford, Liberty), the range is shown. The Appalachian State line is the oddsmaker’s recollection reported by ESPN; no spread was archived at the time because FCS games were rarely posted.
The Record: Howard Over UNLV
Howard was an FCS program that had gone 3 and 19 over the previous two seasons and lost to Boston College and Appalachian State by a combined 125 to 0 in 2015. UNLV paid the Bison $600,000 to come to Las Vegas. Caylin Newton, Cam’s younger brother, ran for 190 yards and two touchdowns and threw for another in Mike London’s first game as Howard’s coach, and the Bison forced three turnovers including a 75 yard fumble return score. A $100 bet on Howard to win outright was reported to pay anywhere from $55,000 to $71,500 depending on the book. According to BetLabSports, teams favored by 40 or more had been 253 and 0 since 2005.
The Most Famous Upsets
Appalachian State 34, Michigan 32 (2007). The two time defending FCS champion walked into the Big House against the No. 5 team in the country, took the lead on a 24 yard field goal with 26 seconds left, then blocked a 37 yard field goal on the final play. It remains the signature upset of the sport and the first win by an FCS team over a ranked FBS team.
Stanford 24, USC 23 (2007). Five weeks later, a Jim Harbaugh coached Stanford team that had won one game the year before went into the Coliseum and beat the No. 2 Trojans on a fourth down touchdown pass in the final minute. It held the point spread record for a decade.
Vanderbilt 40, Alabama 35 (2024). The Commodores beat the No. 1 Crimson Tide in Nashville on October 5, 2024, their first win over a top ranked team and their first over Alabama since 1984, as an underdog of more than three touchdowns. Fans carried a goalpost out of the stadium and into the Cumberland River.
Northern Illinois 16, Notre Dame 14 (2024). One week after Notre Dame won at Texas A&M, a MAC team went to South Bend as a 28 point underdog and won on a late field goal. The Irish recovered to reach the national title game, which made the loss stranger, not smaller.
Louisiana Monroe 21, Alabama 14 (2007). Nick Saban’s first Alabama team lost at home to a Sun Belt program in November. It is the loss every Alabama dynasty retrospective starts with, because nothing like it happened again for 17 years.
Georgia Southern 26, Florida 20 (2013). The Eagles won at the Swamp without completing a pass, Florida’s first loss ever to an FCS team, in a season that ended the Gators’ bowl streak dating to 1991.
James Madison 21, Virginia Tech 16 (2010). The Hokies had opened the season in the top five; they lost to an FCS team in Blacksburg and then won 11 straight to take the ACC.
Why Upsets Happen in September
Look at the dates above: seven of the eleven point spread upsets happened in the first two weekends of a season. Early lines are built on returning production and reputation, not film, and FBS teams treat FCS guarantee games as tune ups. Add a mobile quarterback the favorite has not scouted (Newton, App State’s Armanti Edwards) and a couple of turnovers and the number stops mattering. Our weekly upset tracker logs every outright underdog win this season, and the current slate’s biggest spreads are on college football predictions.
The Bottom Line
Howard’s 43 to 40 win at UNLV in 2017 as a 45 point underdog is the biggest point spread upset in college football history, ahead of Stanford over USC in 2007. Appalachian State over Michigan is the most famous, Vanderbilt over No. 1 Alabama in 2024 is the most recent to shake a national title race, and UMass over Rutgers as a 28.5 point underdog is the largest of the 2026 season so far.