Wall Street Journal Determines Top 10 Home Field Advantages In College Football

WSJ – The best college football programs typically have the most intimidating home environments. Few teams enjoy the experience of visiting venues such as Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium or Oregon’s Autzen Stadium.

But, according to one study, the biggest home-field advantage in college football belongs to a much less-heralded program: North Texas. Prediction Machine, a statistical outlet that simulates games, studied which teams have the biggest home-field advantage since 2000, comparing home performance relative to road performance, taking into account the level of competition and expectations. North Texas leads FBS with a standardized home-field advantage of 5.9 points.

Likewise, teams that are typically seen as having the most feared game-day atmospheres don’t dominate the list. Alabama ranks 61st while Oregon is 69th.

No. 20 Wisconsin, however, probably wishes Saturday’s neutral-site game against No. 3 Alabama were at home: The Badgers have the second-largest advantage at 5.8 points. Similarly Michigan, which slots eighth on the list, might have fared better in their season-opening loss to Utah if it had been at home.

No conference had less of a home-field advantage than the ACC. Florida State ranks last on the list as one of four programs with a negative home-field advantage. This isn’t a bad thing: More than anything, it shows how well they’ve done away from home, where the Seminoles have won three consecutive conference titles and the 2013 national championship.

North Texas? Wow. Not much of a shocker to see Camp Randall up there at the top…

But how about the Mean Green right up at the top with the biggest home field advantage in all of college football? Apogee Stadium ain’t nothin to fuck with.

Kind of flips what you think about home field advantage on its head. I mean we saw first hand how incredible the Virginia Tech fans were on Monday night, with an opening chant that registered on the freaking Richter Scale.

And yet it doesn’t actually help them in any games.

And Florida State, with maybe THE most passionate fans in the game and a team that’s been right at the top of the CFB world the past few years, has actually the worst home field advantage on record.

Of course that just speaks to how good these guys are on the road (and on the flip side, how much North Texas sucks on it).

PS –

Kansas #4, lol.