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NFL Home/Away Differences L/10 Years.

NFL Home and Away: Last 10 Years

Last [WEEK/MONTH], I reviewed the home and road records of FBS teams over the past decade.  At home, Boise State led the way with an incredible 95.3% winning percentage since 2006, while Ohio State was tops on the road at 82.2%.  On the flip side, New Mexico State brought up the rear with a 28.6% home winning percentage and UNLV recorded a ghastly 10.0% winning rate on the road.

As most fans realize, the level of parity in the NFL far exceeds the level of parity in college.  Naturally, this means that you will almost certainly never see an NFL team defend its home turf at a 95% rate over a 10-year span as Boise State has done.  In addition to a more equal talent level, NFL players are professionals who are better prepared to deal with playing on the road, whereas college kids are more likely to get rattled in a hostile environment and less familiar with the challenges involved with road play (e.g., travel).

Having said that, there is certainly an edge to be gained at home in the NFL, even if it is not as large as the advantages held by the elite college football programs.  Here are the top 10 NFL home winning percentages over the past decade (regular season only):

A few thoughts on this list:

• While not as high as the top college teams, New England’s run of dominance at Gillette Stadium has been remarkable.  The Patriots, on average, have won 6.7 games per year at home out of 8 home games.
• Seattle is widely perceived to have the loudest home crowd and they rank at #5 (tied with Pittsburgh) over this span.  The Seahawks have played at Century Link Field since 2002, but, naturally, their dominance at home has grown as their team has improved.

The following list comprises the bottom 10 NFL teams in terms of home field advantage since 2005:

• After looking at this list, it is interesting that some of the most rabid fan bases (e.g., Buffalo, Oakland, Cleveland, Kansas City) have the worst home field advantages in the NFL.  This is not an indictment of the fans, but an acknowledgement that they have not been blessed with very good teams to support in recent years.

Moving to the road warriors, here is the list of the best regular season road performers in the last 10 years:

• As with home percentages, the best NFL road teams do not win as frequently on the road as the best college road teams, which is due to the increased parity in the NFL
• The Patriots top the list of best road teams, joined by Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, San Diego and Denver, all of which have fared well at home as well.
• Notably, Baltimore and Seattle are not on this list, which perhaps shows that they indeed are able to draw upon a stronger home field advantage to create additional separation.
• Dallas ranks as a surprising 3rd on the list, especially considering the Cowboys’ relative lack of success over the past 10 years.  Cowboys fans certainly travel well, which may serve to blunt some of the home field advantage that teams would otherwise enjoy.

Finally, here are the teams that have fared the worst on the road:

• Look familiar?  Not surprisingly, many of the teams that struggle to win at home are on the list of teams that struggle to win on the road as well.
• At 25%, the worst teams on this list still manage to notch two road wins per year, which is certainly more than can be said for the lowly teams of the college football world.

 

 

 

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