Most improbable great seasons in college sports...

I use college and not pro, because not every school has a level playing field. This is inspired by a thread talking about 1998 Kansas State football.

1983 Miami Hurricanes football - Schnellenberger was building a program that was almost dropped in the 70’s. He had the Canes improving, but in no way was a title on anybody’s list of expectations that year.

1995 Northwestern Wildcats football After defeating Notre Dame in the opener, Cats lost by 2 to Miami of Ohio. They didn’t lose again until the Rose Bowl against USC.

1996 Arizona State football - Devils had a couple of top 10 teams in the ‘80’s, but hadn’t won more than 6 games for eight years before going 11-1 and missing out on a National Title by a whisker.

1998 Kansas State football - their futility was unmatched. Bill Snyder had built KSU into a good team, but the breakthrough in ‘98 almost completed an unheard of turnaround.

2007 Kansas and Missouri football - the fact that the Border War featured a #2 v #3 matchup says enough.

2014 Baylor and TCU football - I know TCU was ‘established’ by this point. Integrity aside, Briles worked a miracle in Waco after taking over a program that hadn’t made a bowl since 1994. The fact that two Texas private schools on I-35(W) damn near made the first CFP is insane.

2008 Fresno State baseball - Bulldogs were a 4-seed in their own regional. The program had 2 prior trips to CWS. Lost first game of Super Regional and first game of CWS Final.

2006 Oregon State baseball - Beavers has been to Omaha once, the prior season. A program with little Baseball history lost their CWS opened to Miami by 10 runs, then rallied to advance to the championship series by shutting out Rice in two straight. Beavers lost the title opener to UNC prior to winning the series.

1992 Pepperdine Waves baseball - a solid program that had one Omaha trip suddenly broke through under Andy Lopez. Waves swept through a 6 team regional and didn’t lose at Rosenblatt, defeating perennial power Fullerton in the title game.

2010 Butler Bulldogs basketball - Cinderella makes frequent trips to March Madness, but rarely advances to the Final Four. Bulldogs narrowly missed cutting the nets down in Indianapolis.

2011 VCU and Butler basketball - Bulldogs didn’t sneak up on anybody this time. That’s what makes the ‘11 F4 run more spectacular. Butler rode an 8-seed to Houston, knocking off powerhouse Florida in the Elite 8. VCU was the last team in the tourney and started in Dayton. Advanced to Houston after toppling heavily favored Kansas in San Antonio.