Home Field Advantage?

Players, coaches and fans all agree that there is clearly some substance behind a home field advantage. Whether it might be a rowdy student section, the number avid fans it can hold, how loud they can get, or even something else. All these things certainly can effect on the game being played. In college football who really has the home field advantage? Who has the toughest place to play? Could it be Boise State because of their field? How about Notre Dame due to the tradition? Why not Kyle Field for Texas A&M since they have the 12th man?

Based on the records alone those statistics won't lie although they may not identify the reasons why. From football.stassen.com computations plugged in based off home winning percentage since 1970 many of the results were somewhat surprising. The top 10 listed as follows...

Team..............Percent.....Win/Loss/Tie

Nebraska 87.5 231-33
Boise State 84.8 78-14
Texas 83.5 184-36-1
Ohio State 83.4 212-41-3
Oklahoma 84.1 193-36-1
Michigan 82.7 213-43-4
Penn St 81.0 204-48
Florida 80.9 199-45-5
Florida St 78.3 190-52-2
Alabama 78.2 200-55-2

How was it playing in the MWC? With those same computations it was rather fascinating seeing the results. Was Air Force near the top due to the elevation factor? Were the possible distractions of Vegas a factor matching up against UNLV? Who defended their turf (or grass) the best in the MWC? As follows...

BYU 76.9 176-53
Utah 66.1 143-73-1
Air Force 63.4 146-84-1
SD State 62.6 147-87-5
Wyoming 62.3 143-86-2
Colorado St 56.7 118-90-2
TCU 53.6 117-101-4
New Mexico 51.5 116-109-3
UNLV 49.2 89-92-2

Although, we might not have a definitive answer as to the outside influences we can all certainly agree it can clearly be a factor. It's not always an exact science but cougar fans can without question be proud that over the years the jerseys in blue have stood strong and played like a band of brothers and still clearly tops in MWC defending the home field advantage.