College Football 2011: Most Overrated Home Field Advantages

The arcane idea of having a home-field advantage in college football is widely regarded as a good thing, hence the term "advantage." But how advantageous is it to play on your home turf?

Records speak for themselves, and the win-loss ratios suggest that playing at home is a great advantage. Legendary coach Paul "Bear" Bryant compiled a 72-2 record at Alabama's Bryant-Denny Stadium—much better than his all-time record of 323-85—and most other coaches have winning records at home.  

Does a winning record at home, however, indicate that playing at home is always a good thing?

From another perspective the home-field advantage can really look like a double-edged sword. Like anything else in college football there are pros and cons involved with playing at home.

Let's investigate some overrated home-field advantages.

Crowd Noise

When the visiting team has the ball, the home team's fanbase goes nuts, hootin' and hollerin' as loud as they can. Suddenly, the visiting quarterback has trouble talking to his offensive line, his receivers, everybody.  

The quarterback's voice is muffled. What's going on? He reads the defense and doesn't like what he sees. He looks to his right, trying to audible. For that brief moment when his eyes are distracted, the center thinks he heard the snap count.  

He launches the ball into the quarterbacks left knee. The ball hits the ground and the quarterback paws at it, but a 300 lb. defensive lineman has fallen over it.  

Does this sound familiar? How many times has this happened?  

There is also this: The quarterback makes a read, and tries to talk to his offensive line and receivers. They can't hear him and he has to repeat himself. "What?!" someone shouts. The quarterback repeats himself again, but it's too late. A piece of yellow cloth hits the turf. Delay of game. But wait! Someone called time-out...a wasted time-out.

We've all seen it. The home team's crowd can make life difficult for the visiting offense. It played an integral part of the New Orleans Saint's victory over the Minnesota Vikings in the 2009 NFC Championship Game.  

That doesn't mean that it's always a good thing, however. Some defenses rely heavily on communication, such as the Alabama Crimson Tide under Nick Saban. They have a very reactive defense, reading the opposing offense just as much as they themselves are being read.  

When the crowd gets too noisy the defense can suffer missed queues. It happened during the "Game of the Century," LSU versus Alabama, when Alabama cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick was yelling and jumping, trying to communicate a development he noticed with the LSU offense.  

Defenses have to make adjustments as well, and they can't hear any better than the opposing quarterback's offensive line.  

Fan Support

Walking into an environment where tens of thousands of people are booing you and cheering at your failures can be a daunting situation. Visiting teams must face the ridicule of all those opposing fans, but what effect does it have on the home team?

There's a solid game plan that every team uses when they are on the road: Quiet the crowd. Make some plays. Imbalance the scoreboard. And disappointed fans will hush up very quickly.  

When the home team is ahead, the visiting team suffers immensely. When the home team is down on their luck, the home-field advantage turns into crippling factor.  

We've all disappointed people in our lives, but nothing burns deeper than disappointing someone who believed in you. When the home team's fans get quiet, they are recognizing failure. What sort of mental impact does that have on the players?

It may affect kickers more than anyone else on the field. When a critical missed field goal occurs the majority of fans are mad at the kicker. It's just the way it is. Kickers are supposed to go one for one.

Alabama kicker Cade Foster missed an important field goal in the 2011 game against LSU. He then proceeded to miss two more field goals, one in overtime and received some very mean-spirited backlash both during and after the game. Did knowledge that he disappointed his fans weigh heavy enough on him to influence his three misses? I'd say so, since he's been missing field goals ever since.

It's indisputable that a player's confidence is hindered when he knows he just disappointed 100,000 people who love him.  

Fans may also express displeasure when they simply don't want someone on their team. Former Denver Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton received this. He had to deal with fans booing him and chanting Tim Tebow's name while he was on the field.  

When the fans are yelling their hearts out for you, it's a great motivator. When they aren't it is a painful situation and only invigorates the visiting team. It's like sharks with blood in the water.

Home-Field Advantage Over Visiting Teams

The benefits of the home-field advantage outweigh the potential costs, but whom do they provide the advantage against?

The biggest and most respected teams in collegiate football benefit the most, as their stadiums draw anywhere from 50,000 to 110,000 people. That's a lot of voices calling out in unison.  

For the most part, however, they are cheering with little to no benefit. These large teams often host much weaker teams that they will bury regardless of the venue. This is due to monetary issues.  

A team's university has more to gain by playing at home rather than traveling to a venue that might bring a crowd of 10,000. As far as money goes, that would be a lose-lose for both teams.  

In the 2011 season the No. 1 ranked LSU Tigers hosted Northwestern State, Kentucky and Western Kentucky, all teams they were (and did) expected to soundly dispose of.

No. 2 Alabama hosted Kent State, North Texas, Vanderbilt and FCS school Georgia Southern.

Every big BCS team has out-of-conference "cupcakes" on its schedule, and those cupcakes play on the big school's home turf.  How beneficial is the home-field advantage when you are playing a team you would beat 99 out of 100 times by 40 points?

Conclusion

The home-field advantage idea is a quaint one. For the most part, it helps. Other times it hurts. Many more times it does absolutely nothing.  

Despite the potential drawbacks and often uselessness of the home-field advantage, any fan would tell you they'd rather play a big game at home.

But this is football, and a real football team will tell you this: "We'll play you any day, anywhere, and we will beat you!".