Once again we're gobsmacked by the routine passage of time: Ten years have passed like that, and to commemorate the artificially grouped events therein, the Doc Sat team is counting down the best of 2000-09. Today's category: Best upset.

Doug Gillett: Mississippi State over Florida (Sept. 23, 2004).
There are a lot of criteria that can go into a judgment like "Best Upset," but a truly great upset should have some kind of long-standing significance, and I don't think there was a more significant upset this decade than this one in Starkville, Miss., when 24.5-point underdog Mississippi State dropped Florida, 38-31 -- the inexcusable humiliation that finally lowered the boom on head Gator Ron Zook.

Think of how events might have unfolded differently if Zook hadn't been bitten by the lowly Bulldogs and instead had managed to hang on another year: Urban Meyer might have gone to Notre Dame in 2005 instead of Gainesville, Tim Tebow might not have become a Gator and Florida might not have pulled the 2006 national-title upset over Ohio State that played such a huge part in tilting the nationwide balance of power in the SEC's favor. And perhaps even more significantly for us sports bloggers, had Zook managed to pull it out in that game, the venerable term "Croom'd" might never have entered the lexicon. Truly an earth-shaking afternoon in every respect.

Matt Hinton: UCLA over USC (Dec. 2, 2006) and Pitt over West Virginia (Dec. 1, 2007).
Speaking of the "balance of power" shifting in the SEC's favor, that perception wouldn't be possible if not for the Bruins' and Panthers' out-of-nowhere upsets over championship-bound rivals in the dying hours of the regular season. Even with the prior loss to Oregon State, USC was a lock to ascend to its third straight BCS title game with another easy win over L.A. (the Leinart/Bush Trojans had routed the 9-1 Bruins 66-19 en route to the title game in 2005). And in retrospect, they almost certainly would have beaten No. 1 Ohio State and brought the angels down from heaven to carry Pete Carroll out of Phoenix Stadium with his second (or third, depending on your stance on the '03 AP vote) national championship, this one with a totally new set of players. Ditto West Virginia the following December, when, with No. 1 Missouri simultaneously going down in flames in the Big 12 championship game, the Mountaineers needed only to scrape by 4-7 Pitt to earn a very winnable date with the Buckeyes for the crystal ball.

But both Trojans and Mountaineers inexplicably stumbled through low-scoring stunners that eventually put Florida and LSU, respectively -- neither of which kicked off the SEC championship with a very realistic hope of moving on to the BCS Championship -- in position to make their move. So when you're reminded for the umpteenth time this week that "the winner of Florida-LSU has won the national championship the last three years," mentally add "yeah, but only because they've gotten some unbelievable help at the last second."

Chris Brown: Kansas State over Oklahoma (Dec. 5, 2003).
The 12-0 Sooners came into the Big 12 title game hyped as one of the best teams of all time, having defeated Texas 65-13, Texas A&M 77-0 and Les Miles-led Oklahoma State 52-9. OU quarterback Jason White would win the Heisman that year, beating out future NFLers Larry Fitzgerald and Eli Manning. Kansas State came in at 10-3, and it was all but a foregone conclusion that it was the final regular-season sacrifice for the Sooners, who were on their way to the BCS title game. The game began as expected, when OU's Kejuan Jones scored on a 42-yard run early in the first quarter. But then K-State quarterback Ell Roberson threw three touchdown passes in the second quarter alone, and Darren Sproles set a Big 12 championship mark with 235 yards rushing. The Wildcats capped their 35-0 run when linebacker Ted Sims returned a White interception 27 yards for a touchdown. The final, shocking score read Kansas State 35, Oklahoma 7.

OU, of course, went on to play in the BCS title game, only to lose to LSU, while Southern Cal handled Michigan in the Rose Bowl to earn the AP's renegade No. 1 vote. Kansas State lost to Ohio State 35-28 in the Fiesta Bowl. Yet, while this loss did not derail the Sooners from appearing in the title game, it was in many respects the beginning of the erosion of Bob Stoops' aura as "Big Game Bob." And for Kansas State? It was the school's first conference title, and it's been all downhill from there: The only winning record since the '03 champs was Ron Prince's first team in 2006, which finished 7-6. Sometimes a game's legacy comes in how long the hangover lasts.

Holly Anderson: Appalachian State over Michigan (Sept. 1, 2007).
A I-AA team over No. 5. I was sitting in a bar in San Francisco killing time until Cal's season-opener against Tennessee, and the whole place just went dead silent after the Wolverines' final field-goal attempt was blocked -- all except two guys at the very front of the room, who stood up, turned to reveal their Michigan State caps, and wandered out humming "Hail to the Victors" with smug grins. It was a sight to behold, but I'm not thinking of the game itself so much as what it implied: Appalachian State's victory was a harbinger of sorts, portending one of the most topsy-turvy seasons in memory, a season that would see Navy snap a 44-year losing streak to hapless Notre Dame, Stanford stun USC, Kentucky and Arkansas knock off No. 1 LSU, Alabama fall to Louisiana-Monroe, Kansas and Missouri stage one of the biggest games of the year en route to top-five finishes, Illinois win at Ohio State and land in the Rose Bowl, West Virginia lose its title shot only to pulverize No. 3 Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl and LSU wind up winning the championship, anyway, with two losses to unranked teams.  We were shocked, but you can't say we weren't warned.

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Have an offbeat category you'd like to see tackled in "Best of the Aughts?" Drop me a line: sundaymorningqb -at- yahoo, etc.

Related: End of Decade