The Kansas City Chiefs’ bid for a three-peat in this week’s Super Bowl came up short — very short, to be more precise — continuing a streak of failed attempts by men’s teams over the course of more than two decades in search of elusive back-to-back-to-back championships. Now all eyes turn to Storrs, Connecticut, where the back-to-back Connecticut Huskies aim to buck a trend of attempts, and failures, to capture history.
With titles in 2023 and 2024, Dan Hurley and UConn are the next team primed to make a run at the rare three-peat — something the previous 11 teams positioned to do so came up short of completing. A UConn title would give it the first three-peat in men’s sports (among NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, MLS, CBB and CFB) since the Los Angeles Lakers in 2000, 2001 and 2002, but as you can see below, recent history is not on its side:
Three-peat attempts since Lakers
| Sport | Season | Team | 3-peat? |
| CBB | 2024-25 | UConn | ?? |
| NFL | 2024-25 | Chiefs | No |
| CFB | 2023-24 | Georgia | No |
| NHL | 2021-22 | Lightning | No |
| NBA | 2018-19 | Warriors | No |
| NHL | 2017-18 | Penguins | No |
| NBA | 2023-14 | Heat | No |
| CFB | 2013-14 | Alabama | No |
| MLS | 2013 | Galaxy | No |
| NBA | 2010-11 | Lakers | No |
| MLS | 2008 | Dynamo | No |
| CBB | 2007-08 | Florida | No |
| NFL | 2005-06 | Patriots | No |
UConn’s trajectory as a potential title contender has veered off course after opening the season ranked No. 3 in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball rankings, too. The Huskies fell out of the poll for the first time all season this week after falling at home to St. John’s on Friday. The loss dropped them to 16-7 overall and 8-4 on the season.
Oddsmakers haven’t completely written off UConn, though. Despite an up and down season highlighted by a three-game skid at the Maui Invitational and marred by a lingering injury to star freshman Liam McNeeley, DraftKings Sportsbook has the Huskies’ title odds at +4000 — or 40-1 — which is 15th-highest among all college basketball teams and tied with preseason No. 1 Kansas.
UConn has lost four of its last eight games and fallen out of contention for the Big East title behind St. John’s and Creighton, the latter of which it will play Tuesday night in Nebraska. But Hurley has made it clear all season that they are building toward March, when titles are won.
“No one gets crowned in February,” he said earlier this week via NJ.com. “I know we didn’t get any crowns the last two years in the beginning of February. So everyone’s got to keep playing and, you know, all the big things get decided in March.”
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