Daily Blog •August 9, 2011	Blog Archives

In my July 28 blog, I gave you my homefield edges for 2011 and today I want to take a look at the best home records of the last decade and also look at some interesting variables. First here is the complete list of all 120 teams for home records.

Home Records 2001-2010

Rank	Team	Win	Loss	Total	%
1	Boise St	63	2	65	96.92%
2	Oklahoma	61	2	63	96.83%
3	Ohio St	64	7	71	90.14%
4	TCU	51	7	58	87.93%
5	Troy	41	6	47	87.23%
6	USC	52	8	60	86.67%
7	LSU	61	10	71	85.92%
8	Texas	52	9	61	85.25%
9	Utah	49	9	58	84.48%
10	Virginia Tech	57	11	68	83.82%
11	Texas Tech	51	11	62	82.26%
12	Florida	54	12	66	81.82%
12	Iowa	54	12	66	81.82%
14	Georgia	51	12	63	80.95%
15	West Virginia	52	13	65	80.00%
16	Wisconsin	55	14	69	79.71%
17	Oregon	51	13	64	79.69%
18	Auburn	58	15	73	79.45%
19	Nebraska	56	16	72	77.78%
20	Boston College	50	15	65	76.92%
21	Hawaii	62	19	81	76.54%
22	Miami	48	15	63	76.19%
23	Penn St	53	17	70	75.71%
24	Northern Illinois	43	14	57	75.44%
25	Louisville	46	16	62	74.19%
26	Fresno St	43	15	58	74.14%
26	Toledo	43	15	58	74.14%
28	Oregon St	45	16	61	73.77%
28	USF	45	16	61	73.77%
30	Alabama	53	19	72	73.61%
31	BYU	44	16	60	73.33%
32	Clemson	49	18	67	73.13%
33	Michigan	51	19	70	72.86%
34	Marshall	42	16	58	72.41%
35	Arkansas	52	20	72	72.22%
36	Missouri	44	17	61	72.13%
37	Southern Miss	41	16	57	71.93%
38	Maryland	46	18	64	71.88%
39	Cincinnati	43	17	60	71.67%
39	Nevada	43	17	60	71.67%
41	Tennessee	50	20	70	71.43%
41	Florida St	45	18	63	71.43%
43	Kansas St	48	20	68	70.59%
44	Oklahoma St	46	20	66	69.70%
45	Connecticut	43	19	62	69.35%
46	Georgia Tech	43	20	63	68.25%
46	California	43	20	63	68.25%
48	Pittsburgh	43	21	64	67.19%
49	Arizona St	45	22	67	67.16%
50	South Carolina	46	23	69	66.67%
51	Virginia	43	22	65	66.15%
52	Arkansas St	35	18	53	66.04%
53	Texas A&M	44	23	67	65.67%
54	UCLA	40	21	61	65.57%
55	Bowling Green	34	18	52	65.38%
56	Louisiana Tech	33	18	51	64.71%
57	Air Force	39	22	61	63.93%
58	Colorado	38	22	60	63.33%
58	Houston	38	22	60	63.33%
58	Tulsa	38	22	60	63.33%
61	Michigan St	43	25	68	63.24%
62	Navy	34	20	54	62.96%
63	Kansas	41	25	66	62.12%
64	UCF	37	23	60	61.67%
65	Middle Tennessee	32	20	52	61.54%
66	Purdue	41	26	67	61.19%
67	NC State	41	27	68	60.29%
68	Mississippi	40	27	67	59.70%
69	WKU	34	23	57	59.65%
70	Central Michigan	31	21	52	59.62%
71	Notre Dame	38	26	64	59.38%
72	Western Michigan	32	22	54	59.26%
73	Iowa St	38	27	65	58.46%
74	East Carolina	32	24	56	57.14%
75	Miami, Ohio	29	22	51	56.86%
76	Colorado St	31	24	55	56.36%
77	Minnesota	37	29	66	56.06%
78	Northwestern	34	27	61	55.74%
79	Wake Forest	35	28	63	55.56%
80	Rice	28	23	51	54.90%
80	Akron	28	23	51	54.90%
82	UAB	29	24	53	54.72%
82	Ohio	29	24	53	54.72%
84	UTEP	32	27	59	54.24%
85	Stanford	32	28	60	53.33%
86	New Mexico	33	29	62	53.23%
87	North Carolina	33	30	63	52.38%
88	Rutgers	34	31	65	52.31%
89	Florida Atlantic	25	23	48	52.08%
90	Kentucky	35	33	68	51.47%
91	San Jose St	27	26	53	50.94%
92	San Diego St	30	29	59	50.85%
93	Memphis	32	31	63	50.79%
94	Illinois	31	31	62	50.00%
94	Washington St	31	31	62	50.00%
94	ULM	25	25	50	50.00%
94	Louisiana	27	27	54	50.00%
98	Syracuse	31	32	63	49.21%
99	Wyoming	29	30	59	49.15%
100	Arizona	32	34	66	48.48%
101	Kent St	26	28	54	48.15%
102	Washington	31	34	65	47.69%
103	Indiana	30	33	63	47.62%
104	Ball St	25	29	54	46.30%
105	Baylor	29	34	63	46.03%
106	Utah St	23	27	50	46.00%
107	New Mexico St	25	32	57	43.86%
108	SMU	26	34	60	43.33%
108	Tulane	26	34	60	43.33%
110	Mississippi St	28	37	65	43.08%
111	Temple	24	32	56	42.86%
112	FIU	19	27	46	41.30%
113	North Texas	21	31	52	40.38%
114	Idaho	20	30	50	40.00%
115	UNLV	22	37	59	37.29%
116	Vanderbilt	21	44	65	32.31%
117	Eastern Michigan	16	34	50	32.00%
118	Army	17	38	55	30.91%
119	Buffalo	16	39	55	29.09%
120	Duke	14	48	62	22.58%
	Totals	4625	2690	7315	63.23%

It is no surprise that Boise St is atop the list as their blue uniforms blend in with the blue turf giving them a unique advantage. Only one team has beaten them at home during the regular season and that was way back in 2001 when a Wash St team that finished 10-2 and #10 in the polls beat them 41-20. Their other home loss was in a bowl game vs Boston College 27-21 in 2005. While Boise has an incredible home record it must be factored in that they have played just 7 BCS conference schools at home this decade and are 5-2 in those games. That makes Oklahoma's record of 61-2 even more remarkable. Almost all of their home games have been vs BCS foes and ironically one of their two home losses was to a non-BCS school when TCU beat them in 2005. Their other loss came when they were a 4 TD favorite to beat rival Oklahoma St which came into the game just 3-7 and that was the game that put Les Miles on the map. Oklahoma was caught looking ahead to their Big 12 title game vs Colorado the next week but that loss knocked them out of the game.

Eight teams have single digit losses at home this decade. Troy (6), Ohio St (7), TCU (7), USC (8), Texas (9), Utah (9) and Virginia Tech (9) have all lost less than 1 game at home per year. Here are some schools that rank near the top that the casual college football fan probably would not expect. Texas Tech is 51-11 at home this decade with Lubbock an out the way location with a loud home crowd. Despite having one of the smallest stadium capacities (44,500) for BCS schools, Boston College is 50-15 at Alumni. Northern Illinois is one of the loudest places to play despite the small capacity and they are 43-14 at home.

Is there an advantage to playing at home?

The 120 FBS teams have a combined home record of 4625-2690 which means that they win 63.2% of their home games. Also there are 97 of the 120 teams that have a record of .500 or better at home and just 23 teams that have a losing record at home this decade.

Let me take a closer look at the teams at the bottom of the list. All 23 teams listed above that had losing records at home have losing records overall this decade. There are 8 BCS conference schools on the list in Syracuse, Arizona, Washington, Indiana, Baylor, Mississippi St, Vanderbilt and Duke. When Duke wins opposing players usually say they were lulled to sleep by the high school sized crowds and they have pulled some upsets like upsetting Clemson in 2004 and Georgia Tech in 2003 but 6 of their 14 wins at home this decade have been vs FCS or 1AA foes so they are actually 8-47 at home vs FBS teams this decade.

That got me thinking of how many times a team has been an underdog at home this decade. Is there any team in the country that has not been an underdog even once at home? The answer is yes and it is Oklahoma who has lost only two of those. Florida has been a home dog just once in the "Swamp" and that was vs Florida St a game they did lose 38-34. Vegas linesmakers knew what they were doing with Boise St as they have been a home dog just twice this decade and those were their two home losses.

It probably does not surprise you that Duke has been a home dog 46 times this decade which is the most of any school.
That got me looking at two more scenarios. First of all which teams have been overrated at home. I took the amount of times a team was expected to lose at home (an underdog) and subtracted the amount of actual losses they suffered at home. There are 3 teams who lost 12 games (or more) than the amount of games they were expected to lose at home and the list is a little surprising. Florida St lost 18 games (12 in L/5 yrs) at home but were only a dog 4 times which puts them at the top of the list with 14.

Here are the teams that lost 12 or more games at home than was expected. 1. Florida St 14 2. Middle Tennessee 13 3. Southern Miss 12

Now lets take a look at the underrated home teams from this decade. I know Virginia has been a much better team at home than on the road. They are 43-22 at home and just 17-37 when playing on the road. It surprises me that they have been expected to lose (underdog) 29 times at home this decade and yet they have lost just 22 times. That is 7 full games better than expected and that is the 2nd best in the FBS. As you would expect the numbers are a lot lower for teams who actually have less losses at home than games they were expected to lose.

Here are the top 3 teams. Rice with 9. Virginia with 7 and Nevada with 5.

Tomorrow I take a look at the best road teams this decade.

23 Days Until the First College Football Game!!!