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Observations Part 4 - UCF

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Very true owlcountry! This is way the BigBoys (UCF very close now!) don't wanna play at smaller schools (think UM ducking Arky St. last year). We need these games IN OUR HOUSE more often. No more 1 for 2 deals, go 1 for 1 or forget it Mr. White!
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Ahh, the if we had played at home discussion.

I highly recommend everyone listen to the Freakonomics podcast titled "How to catch World Cup fever" from the 29-39 minute mark as part of research.

Fascinating insight with the author of the book Scorecasting: the hidden influences behind how sports are played and games are won.

I haven't read the book yet but the podcast was very interesting.

(Take a listen and you'll understand a little more where I'm coming from with the targeting calls).
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Summary of OOC schedule performances:

Defense is a problem… Defense is a problem… Defense is a problem. Which part? All aspects of it…

Ok let's move on to conference play.
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owlcountry40 said


You think us being at home on Friday could have lead to 1-2 extra third down stops maybe another 3rd and 4th and short conversation?

Posted On: Sep 24th 2018, 10:12 AM #381319

According to the guys who did the research for the book Scorecasting, the short answer is no.

They determined there isn't such a thing as home field advantage*.

Travel, weather conditions, fans screaming and energizing the players - all had no effect on the outcomes of sports.  Yet we all know teams generally have higher winning percentages at home.

What they determined is that *hometown fans affect the referees, which in turn affects the game.

We can get an easy example of this from looking at the box score.  FAU had 7 penalties while UCF had 4.

Does being at home stop Robison from throwing three interceptions or the cause the defense to shut Milton down?  Probably not.

To me, based upon their findings, the difference that playing at home could have made was in the judgment calls, such as the two reviewed targeting calls.  Maybe we get one to go our way, maybe 15 yards, (to your point owlcountry40, there's an extra first down), maybe a player gets ejected.  

Either way my fellow feathered fans…if we want to do our part in creating home field advantage for our team…gotta get on them refs…

Science dictates it.  :Winking:



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Ok Owl fans, let's do this - INTIMIDATE THE REFS! :Big-Grin:
 
Though I strongly disagree with the study, those same emotion WILL affect and BOOST the home teamplayers and also INTIMIDATE at least some of the visiting players, especially when momentum swings in a game.

For the visitors it is called shutting up the crowd therby the home team loses soem of that advantage!

Good post though, thanks for sharing it!
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This is a solid point.

I think in regards to their research, this happens because the home crowd quiets down and thereby reduces their "influence" on the referees.

You hear coaches and players talk about it all the time - going and taking the home crowd out of the game.

These nuances definitely exist and help create the home field advantage - kinda cool getting some insight as to the why.

(And a great discussion to be had for attendance, ticket sales, rowdy fans, etc).
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