The term “upset” has been thrown about care­lessly and has lost its lus­ter over the years.

The term has been overused in both col­lege and pro­fes­sional sports. When a No. 5-ranked team defeats a No. 2-ranked team, that’s not an upset. When a 13–3 foot­ball team defeats a 14–2 team, it should not be con­sid­ered stunning.

In sports, an “upset” occurs when one team defies all odds to defeat a might­ier oppo­nent. When a team does what no team has ever done before, that is an upset. When a team is over­matched in size, skill and num­ber, but still steals a vic­tory, that is an upset.

When the Ferris men’s bas­ket­ball team defeated the defend­ing national cham­pion Findlay Oilers on Feb. 6, it was a true “upset.” It was an upset for all the rea­sons a vic­tory should be called an upset.

Findlay was ranked No. 19 in the nation and won the NCAA Division II National Championship last sea­son with a 36–0 record. The Oilers had the best record in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) at 12–3. In the 47-year his­tory of the all-time series, Ferris had won 3 of 18 con­tests against Findlay. The Oilers man­han­dled Ferris 90–62 ear­lier in the season.

Ferris had all the ingre­di­ents needed to win a game of such mag­ni­tude: scor­ing, defense, rebound­ing, and intangibles.

It was a game I was cer­tain before it started would have been a lop­sided con­test in the other direc­tion, but I was mis­taken. It was that one time when a team over­comes a supe­rior oppo­nent and wins a game they were not “sup­posed” to win.