Sports

Math Guy Finds Minnesota's 'Big Four' Title Drought Is A 1-In-99 Anomaly

A sports analyst ran the numbers, and Minnesota fans may have more reason to complain than they thought.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — Minnesota sports fans do not need a math model to know the pain is real.

Still, the math does not help.

Fantasy analyst Kent Weyrauch recently ran the numbers on Minnesota’s championship drought among the state’s four major men’s professional sports teams: the Vikings, Twins, Timberwolves, and Wild.

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His conclusion was that Minnesota’s title misery is a massive statistical anomaly.

Weyrauch calculated that the odds of Minnesota’s four major men’s teams winning so few championships, given their regular-season records, are about 1 in 99.

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"Minnesota sports fans have a right to be pissed," Weyrauch wrote on X. "Our drought is truly an anomaly."

The Twins remain the last of the four teams to win a championship, taking the 1991 World Series in one of the most dramatic Fall Classics ever played.

Since then, Minnesota fans have watched a long, strange, and brutal drought unfold.

The Vikings have been one of the NFL’s more successful regular-season franchises, but they have never won a Super Bowl.

The franchise is 546-446-11 all time, according to Pro Football Reference, but 0 for 4 in Super Bowl appearances.

The Wild have also been respectable for much of their existence, making the playoffs regularly since joining the NHL. But the franchise has never reached the Stanley Cup Final.

The Timberwolves have had fewer sustained highs than the Vikings or Wild, but their recent rise has only added another layer to Minnesota’s familiar sports anxiety: hope, followed by dread.

And then there are the Twins, whose 1991 championship still stands as the last title won by Minnesota’s big four men’s teams.

Of course, Minnesota has not been totally shut out.

The Lynx won four WNBA championships between 2011 and 2017, becoming one of the great dynasties in women’s basketball history. Any honest conversation about Minnesota sports success has to include them.

But among the Vikings, Twins, Timberwolves, and Wild, the drought remains one of the strangest in American sports.

Minnesota has not been bad enough to ignore.

That might be what makes it worse.

The state has had Hall of Famers, MVPs, division titles, playoff runs, packed arenas and plenty of regular-season success. What it has not had, for more than three decades, is the one thing fans remember most.

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