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Another upset occurred in the Atlanta region when the Northwestern St. Demons—who were 6½-point underdogs—edged the Iowa Hawkeyes 64-63.

Bradley, a 13 seed, pulled off a monumental upset when they upset the fourth seed, and 6½-point chalk, Kansas Jayhawks 77-73.

When all the dust had cleared, the Florida Gators were preparing to face the UCLA Bruins. Anointed a 1-point chalk by Vegas, Florida covered the spread and then some taking down the Bruins 73-57 in the title game.

March saw some big offseason moves in the NFL. The Dallas Cowboys saw their odds to win the Super Bowl skyrocket when they announced the signing of enigmatic WR Terrell Owens. The Tuna and crew went from being 10-1 favorites to win Super Bowl XLI to 7-1 faves. Not to be outdone, the Miami Dolphins acquired QB Daunte Culpepper from the Minnesota Vikings and saw their odds to win the 2007 Super Bowl go from 30-1 to 18-1.

Leading up to the 132nd running of the Kentucky Derby, the horses getting chalk from the books were Brother Derek (3-1), Lawyer Ron (4-1) and Barbaro (4-1). Barbaro, who was 9-1 at one time, took the Kentucky Derby but would suffer a serious injury a couple of weeks later.

2006 is four years after 2002 meaning that it was once again time for the World Cup of soccer (football if you’re European). Taking place in soccer mad Germany, fans of the beautiful game were treated to an intriguing tournament.

Zinedine Zidane was playing in his last World Cup tournament and the French side (+1340) did their best to make his send off as memorable as possible as they were one of the World Cup finalists. Gigi Buffon and the Azzurri aka Italy (+974) also qualified for the final.

The sports books really were racking their brains deciding on which team to favor and listed the final as a Pick’em. Two goals, a head butt and a shootout later, Italy cashed in at +974 and won the World Cup.

As the summer drew to an end, the college football practice fields began to fill up again and people began to speak of the luck of the Irish.

Notre Dame was listed at +450 to take the BCS title game in early 2007 but failed to live up to expectations, earning a berth in the Sugar Bowl more for their name as opposed to their football team.

Ohio State was tabbed at +500 and ended up justifying it going No. 1 wire-to-wire and QB Troy Smith won the Heisman trophy along the way.

With the fall also came the start of the NFL season and a number of surprises. QB Daunte Culpepper wasn’t as advertised and the Miami Dolphins struggled throughout the season. Culpepper was replaced by Joey Harrington, who was then replaced by Cleo Lemon. The Dolphins were listed at +160 to take the AFC East, but obviously didn’t pay out.

On the other side of the coin, the New Orleans Saints surprised many and gave the hurricane recovering city something to cheer about. The Saints with Reggie Bush and Drew Brees won the NFC South and got a first round bye in the NFL playoffs.

It was definitely a helluva year filled with more than just UIGEA stories.

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