How strong is home-field advantage in D3?

[EightNTheBox]

I think in the NFL home field teams win like 56% of the time. I could be wrong here. It seems pretty strong at the D1-A level where the atmospheres and travel are long and extreme. In HS they seem small because the stress level is low and few teams have arduous field or crowd conditions for away teams. In D3, however, it seems a bit in the middle. Teams take moderate bus drives/sometimes fly, while others have such terrible fields and atmospheres it seems to pull other, better teams down to their level.

How would you estimate home-field advantage in D3, in both description and a winning percentage?

[Ron Boerger]

Depends on a lot of factors, like if it's a flight whether the team is used to travelling by plane (most are not), and even then it's difficult. 

In the SCAC, where plane trips *are* a way of life, the home team has a decided advantage - 7-10 points, I'd estimate.

[Ralph Turner]

Depends on a lot of factors, like if it's a flight whether the team is used to travelling by plane (most are not), and even then it's difficult. 

In the SCAC, where plane trips *are* a way of life, the home team has a decided advantage - 7-10 points, I'd estimate.

In the ASC, where 300 to 600 to 800 mile bus trips are routine, 5-7 points.

[old ends]

Ran some numbers for just the Centennial conference:

45 games total for a 9 team conference'
21 home game wins or 47%

The top 5 teams won 72% of thier home games
the bottom 4 teams won 15 % of thier home games

Sometimes the theories get put on a paradime and go way outside the triangles, forget the box.

[retagent]

Or it could be four nickels.............

[Mr. Ypsi]

I haven't run the numbers on past years, but it has always seemed to me that home field was worth about a td in the CCIW.  Not this year!  Kenosha always struck me as THE home field advantage - this year Carthage went 3-1 on the road, 1-2 at home.  AQ NCC went 4-0 on the road, 2-1 at home.  Overall, home teams went 15-13 - hardly an intimidating advantage!

[Pat Coleman]

Or it could be four nickels.............

+1!

[theoriginalupstate]

Hartwick, in the E8, plays their home games in a cage where things are very compacted (to say the least).  At home they went 5-0 including wins over Ithaca and St. John Fisher, on the road they allowed two NEFC teams to score 40 pts and allowed 70pts to a 3 win team. 

Hartwick at home:
IC (8-3)-W: 32-30
HUSSON (6-3)-W: 35-27
SJF (10-1)-W: 31-28
Mt.IDA (3-7)-W: 35-14
SC (4-6)-W: 37-34

Wick on Road:
WNEC (3-7)-L:48-21
AU (8-3)-L: 46-36
Becker (2-7)-W: 61-32
NU (2-8)-W: 19-13
UC (3-7)-W: 72-70 (4OT)

[K-Mack]

Or it could be four nickels.............

+1!

Wow, I didn't even try to get it until I saw someone gave it props, then had to go back and think ... "OK, funny. Sorta. Like if I was in a car en route to Alliance with Pat, I'd laugh."

[K-Mack]

Hartwick plays in a cage?

Anyway, I would say the original posts are about right.

The home vs. road deal, as I remember it, went like this: Having the crowd behind you is nice, but it doesn't affect the game much if you're locked in. So home was nice because you can sleep later, relax on game morning, walk across campus to the locker room. I think we used to have breakfast the same time no matter if it was home or away, just so you didn't eat too close to game time, so home games you would eat at 7 for a 1:30 kickoff, then go back to the dorm and sleep. (R-MC is a small campus where dorms, dining hall and football annex were all at the same intersection of the same block)

The downside to home games is you were subject to distractions the night before, parents in town and wanting to take you out to dinner, on-campus parties, lady friends stopping by your dorm room, etc. ... and you're supposed to be getting your rest. So sometimes being on the road in a hotel with a singular focus on tomorrow's game is advantageous.

The bad side to the road can be the bus ride, esp. if it's a Saturday morning departure, sitting in your seat all cramped. That and other obvious stuff, unfamiliar surroundings, hostile crowd, etc.

[gordonmann]

As I recall, Hartwick's field is surrounded by a metal fence and perched amid the hills of Delaware County.  It does have the atmosphere of being an elevated cage.

A former player told me this past weekend that he didn't think there was much to the home field advantage at the Division III level.  A current player told me that crowd noise (one small part of home field advantage) at Wesley did make it hard to hear on the field.

My guess is that it probably depends on which home field we're talking about and who the visitor is.

[Bob Maxwell]

With many of the factors that create the Home field advantage not evident in most D-III sites...

Who the visitor is makes a half of this discussion...  the other half is who the home team is.   

[HScoach]

At the D3 level, I think the only real tangible home field advantage factor is the playing surface.  Whether it be grass, new turf, old turf, etc.  Regardless, you're playing on a surface that you're used to. 

Come playoff time, extremely long travel can be an issue too.

[PA_wesleyfan]

As I recall, Hartwick's field is surrounded by a metal fence and perched amid the hills of Delaware County.  It does have the atmosphere of being an elevated cage.

A former player told me this past weekend that he didn't think there was much to the home field advantage at the Division III level.  A current player told me that crowd noise (one small part of home field advantage) at Wesley did make it hard to hear on the field.

My guess is that it probably depends on which home field we're talking about and who the visitor is.

  Gordon
There is something about Uncle Frank that gets the crowd going at
Wesley. HE got the crowd going last week  when  the Wesley players looked to be comfortable and HSU scored. And as you know he did the same at the Del Val game.. The crowd noise goes up drastically when  he prompts them to do so.
He surely is Welsey's 12th man

[K-Mack]

That dude is the man.

It's H-SC, by the way, for Hampden-Sydney. Seen it all kinds of ways over the site, HCS and whatnot. But HSU can be mistaken for Hardin-Simmons.

I think there are definitely home field advantages but they can be subtle and vary from team to team. In other words, I've played in games where I noticed the crowd was loud, but I wouldn't say it bothered me in how I played. Usually if I was prepared well, I played well. If the other guy was just better than me, I didn't.

Wet grass, the feel of the cold ball against bare hands (never wore gloves, probably dumb, just too broke for some Neumanns), rain, long rides, your body being tired, being slow to get warmed up ... there's all kinds of factors.

How much of it you can directly attribute to the site of the game is debatable.

I think there are some loud crowds in D3, but as a player, you usually hear all crowd noise as background noise once a play is about to begin. I remember looking into the crowd and listening to pep bands during timeouts and stuff.

FWIW.