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ed zachery

many times the only time we see teams play an entire game is vs our fav team

probably not the best evaluation, but...... it's what we have

I usually try to watch as many and as much of the other games as possible. I just enjoy watching B1G teams play.

But I was hostage at a party that went on well into the evening and completely missed all other games. 

But we did have a lot of fun. 

It was brought in a different thread that Iowa benefitted from not playing OSU, Mich, MSU, which is true.

One can argue that MSU,  Mich and OSU also benefited from Rutgers, MD, Ind and PSU being worse than originally thought.  MSU especially also got lucky with its schedule, not having to play Wisc, Iowa, Minn or ILL.  We saw what happened to MSU against Purdue.

Results posted, votes through @NorthernOhioBuckeye , 13 voters.  

in Massey's opinion 

FWIW:
Michigan State is the flip side of Penn State.  While the Nittany Lions were hurt by a brutally difficult schedule both in terms of the which cross-overs they played and the allocation of H/A games, the Spartans were helped by a comparatively easy schedule both in terms of which cross-overs they played and the allocation of H/A games.  

Here are MSU's five B1G road games by current Power Ranking:

• L by 49 at #2 tOSU
• L by 11 at #8 PU
• W by 18 at #12 RU
• W by 17 at #13 NU
• W by 5 at #14 IU

Ie, MSU's only conference road wins this year were over the three worst teams in the league.  

Then look at MSU's four B1G home games also by current Power Ranking:

• W by 4 vs #1 M
• W by 3 vs #7 PSU
• W in OT vs #10 UNL
• W by 19 vs #11 UMD

Three of the four were close enough that it isn't unreasonable to attribute the wins to HFA.  

I think I have read somewhere that home field advantage has disapeared in the NFL,  with home teams actually posting a .500 record the last 2 years in a row.  You could write that off in 2020 due to empty stadiums and covid distractions,  but now that trend has continued in 2021 too.

I have also have heard in the past that HFA was considered to be worth 3 points.  I wonder if that is still true.  Probably not for NFL anymore, I wonder if it is still true in college football?

I think it is a bigger deal in college for a bunch of reasons:
One is that younger players are probably overall more likely to be more emotionally swayed.  That roaring home crowd maybe pumps them up a little more than it does with older professionals.  

Another is the limited time available for college teams.  They have to at least pretend to attend classes and practice time is limited.  Those distractions do not exist in the NFL.  

Finally, from my limited experience attending NFL games I honestly don't think that NFL stadiums, on average, are anywhere near as loud as large College venues.  The Dawg Pound in Cleveland can be pretty intense but I think it pails next to the student sections at PSU, UW, tOSU, etc.  

Just looking at this year home records (sorted by power ranking):

• 4-0 M
• 4-0 tOSU
• 4-0 MSU
• 4-1 IA
• 3-2 UW
• 3-2 MN
• 2-2 PSU
• 3-2 PU
• 2-3 IL
• 1-4 UNL
• 1-3 UMD
• 0-4 RU
• 1-4 NU
• 0-4 IU
• 32-31

Road records (I realize this should be the inverse, I'm just doing it as a double-check):

• 4-1 M
• 4-1 tOSU
• 3-2 MSU
• 3-1 IA
• 3-1 UW
• 3-1 MN
• 2-3 PSU
• 3-1 PU
• 2-2 IL
• 0-4 UNL
• 2-3 UMD
• 2-3 RU
• 0-4 NU
• 0-5 IU
• 31-32

Obviously that is NOT a major gap but IMHO that is largely due to quirks in the schedule:

• M was 1/2 game better at home
• tOSU was 1/2 game better at home
• MSU was 1-1/2 games better at home
• IA was 1/2 game better at home
• UW was 1/2 game better on the road
• MN was 1/2 game better on the road
• PSU was 1/2 game better at home
• PU was 1/2 game better on the road
• IL was 1/2 game better on the road
• UNL was 1/2 game better at home
• UMD was 1/2 game better on the road
• RU was 1-1/2 games better on the road
• NU was 1/2 game better at home
• IU was even

Wisconsin was 1/2 game better on the road but note that three of their four best opponents were at home so I think that has a lot more to do with opponent quality than with location.  

Minnesota was 1/2 game better on the road but just like UW who lost at home to M, MN lost at home to tOSU.  

Purdue was 1/2 game better on the road but not that they played three of their five toughest opponents at home with one win (MSU) and two losses (UW, MN) in those games.  

Illinois is hard to figure out in general.  They lost to a couple of pretty bad teams (UMD, RU) both at home and beat a couple of pretty good teams (MN, PSU) both on the road.  That is just goofy even without accounting for HFA.  

UMD was 1/2 game better on the road but they simply beat the three worst teams they played (#14 IU, #12 RU, #9 IL) and lost to the other six (the top-7 excluding #5 UW).  That is opponent quality not HFA and they just happened to catch two of their three easiest opponents on the road.  

Rutgers is the only one that did more than 1/2 game better on the road so lets dive deeper on this one:

• L to #1 M by 7 on the road.  
• L to #2 tOSU by 39 at home.  
• L to #3 MSU by 18 at home.  
• L to #5 UW by 49 at home.  
• L to #7 PSU by 28 on the road.  
• Beat #9 IL by 6 on the road.  
• L to #11 UMD by 24 at home.  
• L to #13 NU by 14 one the road.  
• Beat #14 IU by 35 on the road.  

My hunch is that HFA was irrelevant in those first five games listed simply because RU wasn't good enough to beat any of those teams no matter where they played.  The road upset of Illinois is just plain inexplicable but, as noted above, Illinois is just hard to figure out.  After that they played the two worst teams in the league on the road and went 1-1.  

Finally, not to open a can of worms but IMHO the B1G-W is the inferior division and this year their teams had five home and four road games.  Ie, the inferior division was playing at home more often and the home teams STILL ended up with a .500+ record.