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The ACC’s Greatest Home Field Advantage
By Garrett Strunk
SouthernPigskin.com
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Clemson has been exceptionally good in Death Valley recently, but the Tigers face some tough road games in 2012.
We have finally reached the home stretch of the offseason. when we are now counting down the days until the opening kickoff instead of the months. Speaking of “home”, I figured it would be of interest to find out which of the 12 ACC teams has the greatest home field advantage.
I went back to the past five seasons and made some calculations for each team's win percentages, both home and away. One thing of note is that all neutral site games, which includes bowl games and conference championship games, are lumped in with the “away” category. So basically, if you aren't home, then you are away.
BC 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
Home: 6-1 5-2 6-1 4-3 2-5 23-12 = 0.657 win %
Away: 5-2 4-3 2-4 3-3 2-3 16-15 = 0.516 win %
Clem 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
Home: 5-2 5-2 6-1 5-2 7-0 28-7 = 0.800 win %
Away: 4-2 2-4 3-4 1-5 3-4 13-19 = 0.406 win %
Duke 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
Home: 0-5 3-4 2-4 2-5 1-6 5-24 = 0.172 win %
Away: 1-6 1-4 3-3 1-4 2-3 8-20 = 0.286 win %
FSU 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
Home: 4-1 4-3 3-3 6-1 5-2 22-10 = 0.687 win %
Away: 3-5 5-1 4-3 4-3 4-2 20-14 = 0.588 win %
GT 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
Home: 4-3 6-1 5-1 4-2 5-2 24-9 = 0.727 win %
Away: 3-3 3-3 6-2 2-5 3-3 17-16 = 0.515 win %
Mary 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
Home: 3-3 6-1 2-5 5-1 2-5 18-15 = 0.545 win %
Away: 3-4 2-4 0-5 4-3 0-5 9-21 = 0.300 win %
Miami 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
Home: 4-3 4-2 5-1 3-3 4-3 20-12 = 0.625 win %
Away: 1-4 3-4 4-3 4-3 2-3 14-17 = 0.452 win %
UNC 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
Home: 3-3 5-2 5-2 3-3 6-1 22-11 = 0.667 win %
Away: 1-5 3-3 3-3 5-2 1-5 13-18 = 0.419 win %
NCSU 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
Home: 3-4 4-3 5-3 5-1 6-1 23-12 = 0.657 win %
Away: 2-3 2-4 0-4 4-3 2-4 10-18 = 0.357 win %
UVA 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
Home: 5-1 4-3 1-6 4-3 4-3 18-16 = 0.529 win %
Away: 4-3 1-4 2-3 0-5 4-2 11-17 = 0.393 win %
VT 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
Home: 6-1 6-0 5-1 6-1 5-1 28-4 = 0.875 win %
Away: 5-2 4-4 5-2 5-2 6-2 25-12 = 0.676 win %
Wake 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Total
Home: 5-1 5-2 4-3 2-4 4-3 20-13 = 0.606 win %
Away: 4-3 3-3 1-4 1-5 2-4 11-19 = 0.366 win %
If you're still following along, it probably does not come as too big of a surprise that Virginia Tech has the best home and road winning percentages since they have been the most consistent team in the ACC over the last five years . Taken at face value, one could make the argument that VT has the greatest home field advantage. That's the simplest way we could settle “the greatest home field advantage” argument, but what fun is there in doing it like that?
To truly find out which team has the greatest home field advantage, we are going to take it one step further. We are looking for the team that played the best at home in comparison to how they played away. We'll determine that by taking the away winning percentage and subtracting it from the home winning percentage. The advantage of doing it like this is that it levels the playing field for all the teams, regardless of how good or bad they are. Again, we are looking for the greatest win percentage difference between teams playing at home versus away.
Below are the results of the teams ranked from the greatest home field advantage to the worst home field advantage over the last five years, using just the formula of [winning percentage home – winning percentage away = difference].
1. Clem: 0.800% - 0.406% = 0.394
2. NCSU: 0.657% - 0.357% = 0.300
3. UNC: 0.667% - 0.419% = 0.248
4. Mary: 0.545% - 0.300% = 0.245
5. Wake: 0.606% - 0.366% = 0.240
6. GT: 0.727% - 0.515% = 0.212
7. VT: 0.875% - 0.676% = 0.199
8. Miami: 0.625% - 0.452% = 0.173
9. BC: 0.657% - 0.515% = 0.142
10. UVA: 0.529% - 0.393% = 0.136
11. FSU: 0.687% - 0.588% = 0.099
12. Duke: 0.172% - 0.286% = -0.114
Seeing FSU ranked so low is a big surprise, but part of it is due to the Seminoles having a high winning percentage in their away games, which includes going 6-1 at neutral sites in that five-year span. Duke has more wins away than at home, hence the negative number. It is also surprising to see VT ranked behind Maryland and Wake Forest, who have actually performed decent at home even in their lean years.
If you are even a casual ACC football observer, this should not come as a surprise, Clemson at home in “Death Valley” has by far the greatest home field advantage of any team in the ACC. They are the definition of a Jekyll and Hide team when they play away from home. The last time they had a winning record on the road was in 2007. Perhaps they ought to bring Howard's Rock on the road with them this season for some good luck. They could certainly use it when they play Auburn and FSU away from the friendly confines of the greatest home field advantage in the ACC.
