Did You Know? Home Field Advantage Matters

As some of you may know, the Boston Red Sox won the World Series at home in Boston for the first time since 1918. No, this is not a post about the beauty of Boston sports, so please do not stop reading. This home field victory made me question how much playing at home matters. Does home field advantage really matter in sports?

Research by sports statisticians shows there is a pronounced home-field advantage. Social psychologist Jeremy P. Jamieson conducted a meta-analysis on both team sports and individual sports and found the home team/individual tends to win slightly more than 60 percent of the time. Every sport is different though, so let’s look at the breakdown.

Sportswriter L. Jon Wertheim’s reports that in the United States, Major League Soccer has the most extreme home field advantage (home teams win around 69.1 percent of the time). I guess we all know at least one fact about the MLS now.  (Editor’s note:  This will probably the only MLS reference this year)  NCAA men’s basketball home teams win 68.8 percent of games and college football home teams win around 63 percent. The other major sports are as follows:

NBA: 60.5 percent

NFL: 57.3 percent

NHL: 55.7 percent

MLB: 53.9 percent

While the MLB has the lowest percentage of home field advantage wins, the World Series produces different results. 21 of the past 26 teams with home field advantage have won the World Series and the home team has won all nine of the past Game 7s.

The one noteworthy outlier is Michael Jordan’s 1995-1996 Bulls who won 41 of 43 home games. The story behind the success of the ‘95-96 Bulls can be left for another post.

Duke fans nerds chant “Our House” at the end of each victory and now I understand why. Neuroscientists studying British professional soccer players found that the players produced more salivary testosterone when playing at home than when playing away. They believe this reflects the player’s tendency to defend their territory against intruders. Maybe Under Armor already knew about this neuroscience before creating their slogan, “We Must Protect this House.”

Some other theories behind the home field advantage include athletes sleeping in their own bed, eating home cooking, experiencing familiarity with the home field/court, and receiving crowd support. In the old Boston Garden, for example, rumors say the wood floor had dead spots where opponents would lost control of the ball and commit turnovers. If only this year’s team could find a way to use home court to their advantage. Other research suggests noise from the home crowd can influence the referee’s judgment. For one, look at the first inning of Game 1 of the World Series when the umpires reversed a call at second base. Yes it was a horrible call, but I still want to give a little credit to the aggravated, rowdy Bahhston crowd.

Freakonomics co-author Steve Levitt wrote an article about betting on home underdogs in the NFL. He says one of the most undervalued NFL bets is the home underdog. If you find sports betting as fascinating as I do, check this out.  

By Alyssa Chudnofsky (a.k.a. the young Jackie MacMullan, a.k.a. Girls Dig Sports Too)

Links that helped me out:

http://news.discovery.com/human/why-does-home-field-advantage-matter-131004.htm