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112-478: The conference was founded in the early 1970s as the Mid Atlantic Conference by Dick Russell, the swimming and water polo coach at Bucknell University with member schools from New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland. The first conference championship was held in 1972, with Yale defeating Harvard. The organization was run by the conference's coaches until a commissioner was hired in 1990. In 1993,

224-447: A T 2 {\displaystyle d_{h,T_{1}}=h_{T_{1}}-a_{T_{2}}} and d a , T 1 = a T 1 − h T 2 {\displaystyle d_{a,T_{1}}=a_{T_{1}}-h_{T_{2}}} . Team T 1 {\displaystyle T_{1}} played better at home field if d h , T 1 > d

336-594: A T 2 {\displaystyle h_{T_{1}}:a_{T_{2}}} played at T 1 {\displaystyle T_{1}} 's field and h T 2 : a T 1 {\displaystyle h_{T_{2}}:a_{T_{1}}} played at T 2 {\displaystyle T_{2}} 's field, we can compute differences in scores (e.g. from T 1 {\displaystyle T_{1}} 's point of view): d h , T 1 = h T 1 −

448-456: A , T 1 {\displaystyle d_{h,T_{1}}>d_{a,T_{1}}} , and T 1 {\displaystyle T_{1}} played better at away field if d h , T 1 < d a , T 1 {\displaystyle d_{h,T_{1}}<d_{a,T_{1}}} (for example, if Arsenal won 3–1 at home against Chelsea, i.e. d h , A r s e n

560-1108: A l = 2 {\displaystyle d_{h,Arsenal}=2} , and Arsenal won 3–0 at Chelsea, i.e. d a , A r s e n a l = 3 {\displaystyle d_{a,Arsenal}=3} , then the result for Arsenal at home was worse). Same approach has to be used for all opponents in one season to obtain k 1 {\displaystyle k_{1}} , k 0 {\displaystyle k_{0}} , and k − 1 {\displaystyle k_{-1}} . Values of k 1 {\displaystyle k_{1}} , k 0 {\displaystyle k_{0}} , and k − 1 {\displaystyle k_{-1}} are used to estimate probabilities as p ^ r = k r + 1 K + 3 , r = − 1 , 0 , 1 {\displaystyle {\hat {p}}_{r}={\frac {k_{r}+1}{K+3}},r=-1,0,1} , where K {\displaystyle K}

672-760: A season , a conference refers to a single tournament. This has since been carried over by other leagues, such as the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), which has its own conferences , the Philippine Super Liga , the Premier Volleyball League , the PBA D-League , and formerly the Philippine Basketball League . The term "conference" referring to a single tournament does not apply if there's only one tournament in

784-405: A best-of-5 or best-of-7 format, where the first team to win 3 or 4 games, respectively, wins the playoff. Since these best-of series always involve an odd number of games, it is impossible to guarantee that an equal number of games will be played at each team's home venue. As a result, the team with the better regular season record must be scheduled to have one more home game than the other. This team

896-516: A conference system. From 2011 through to 2015, the competition had one conference based in each of its three founding countries . The winner of each conference received a playoff spot, as did the three next best teams overall. With the addition of Argentina's Jaguares and Japan's Sunwolves for 2016, plus a sixth franchise for South Africa, the competition reorganised into a new four-conference system. In 2016 and 2017, Australia and New Zealand formed separate conferences within an Australasian group;

1008-487: A counterexample, college football schedules often have an imbalance in which the most successful and largest teams can negotiate more home appearances than mid-majors , a situation that was also prevalent in the early, disorganized years of the National Football League.) However, in the playoffs , home advantage is usually given to the team with the higher seed (which may or may not have the better record), as

1120-402: A disadvantage to the home team in hot-weather games. In ice hockey , there are at least three distinct rule-related advantages for the home team. The first is referred to as "last change", where during stoppages of play, the home team is allowed to make player substitutions after the visiting team does (unless the home team ices the puck, in which case no substitutions are allowed). This allows

1232-584: A group of teams (generally eight to twelve colleges and/or universities, occasionally as high as sixteen) that regularly play against each other within a national governing body, the most significant of which is the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Most of these groups (including the "Power Five" conferences that are primary partners in the College Football Playoff ) refer to themselves as conferences, although

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1344-484: A lesser extent their own conference; NBA and NHL teams play at least two games (one at each home arena ) against every other team in their league in a regular season, MLB teams play at least one 3-game series against every other team (as of the 2023 season ), but the NFL teams do not. In college sports , the terms "league," "conference" and (generally at lower levels) "athletic association" can be used interchangeably to refer to

1456-483: A neutral site in which the location is determined years in advance. In many team sports in North America (including baseball , basketball , and ice hockey ), playoff series are often held with a nearly equal number of games at each team's site. However, as it is usually beneficial to have an odd number of matches in a series (to prevent ties), the final home game is often awarded to the team that had more success over

1568-496: A non-NHL market, with one as designated home team and one as the designated away team. The neutral site games ended after the 1993–94 NHL season , as the following season was lockout-shortened, and the 1995–96 NHL season reduced the regular season from 84 to 82 games per team. The NHL has held neutral-site, season-opening games in Europe (sometimes also including preseason exhibitions against European clubs), first from 2007 to 2011 as

1680-1029: A platoon system with other players (such as a catcher who does not start because the starting pitcher uses the other catcher), while the AL team's DH batted three or more times a game throughout the season. Measuring the home-field advantage of a team (in a league with balanced schedule) requires a determination of the number of opponents for which the result at home-field was better ( k 1 {\displaystyle k_{1}} ), same ( k 0 {\displaystyle k_{0}} ), and worse ( k − 1 {\displaystyle k_{-1}} ). Goals scored and conceded – in so called combined measure of home team advantage – are used to determine which results are better, same, and which are worse. Given two results between teams T 1 {\displaystyle T_{1}} and T 2 {\displaystyle T_{2}} , h T 1 :

1792-559: A previous match. For example, after the violent clashes after the Turkey-Switzerland game in 2005 , UEFA punished the Turkish team with playing the next six regular international home matches abroad. It is also required where one team's home location is in a war zone or at high risk of terrorism, or if the visiting team is prevented from travelling to (one of) their opponent's regular stadium(s) for political reasons. The latter consideration

1904-439: A rarity, having been discouraged in the era of black-and-white television. Many teams from warm-weather cities may wear their white uniforms at home, forcing their opponent to wear dark uniforms in the hot weather. An exception is a rule in high school American football (except Texas, which plays by NCAA football rules), requiring the home team to wear dark jerseys and the visiting team to wear white jerseys, which may work as

2016-558: A season, such as in the case of the college sports leagues, the Philippine Football League , and the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League . Home advantage In team sports , the term home advantage – also called home ground, home field, home-field advantage, home court, home-court advantage, defender's advantage or home-ice advantage – describes the benefit that the home team

2128-514: A secondary trophy called a "shield" (Irish, Scottish/Italian, South African, Welsh), with the overall league table used to determine playoff participants. The winner of each shield, however, is assured a place in the following year's European Rugby Champions Cup regardless of its overall league position. The now defunct Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association , where teams are represented by companies instead of geographical entities, and there are multiple tournaments held sequentially in

2240-437: A significant drop to home advantage compared with the previous six seasons. In 592 games played under the restricted conditions through March, home teams suffered a decline of 10% while road teams’ win rates increased by 7%. In a number of sports, the hosting team has the advantage of playing with their first choice uniforms, while the visiting team wears their alternative away/road colors . Some sports leagues simply state that

2352-435: A strong effect when each factor is considered alone suggesting that it is the combination of several different factors that creates the overall home advantage effect. An evolutionary psychology explanation for the home advantage effect refers to observed behavioral and physiological responses in animals when they are defending their home territory against intruders. This causes a rise in aggression and testosterone levels in

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2464-505: A total of sixteen teams (eight from each conference) qualify for the league's postseason playoffs. In the NHL , since the 2013–14 season, the top 3 in each division are guaranteed to qualify and division winners are awarded the highest seeds, meaning they will have home-ice advantage in a given round, with the two best remaining teams in each conference receiving wild card spots. In the NBA, starting with

2576-550: Is incomplete gamma function . For example, Newcastle in 2015/2016 English Premier League season recorded better result at home field for 13 opponents, same result with 4 opponents, and worse result for two opponents; therefore P ( p 1 > p − 1 ) = 1 − I 1 / 2 ( 14 , 3 ) = 0.998 {\displaystyle P(p_{1}>p_{-1})=1-I_{1/2}(14,3)=0.998} and hypothesis about home team advantage can be accepted. This procedure

2688-412: Is a collection of sports teams which play competitively against each other in a sports league. In many cases conferences are subdivided into smaller divisions , with the best teams competing at successively higher levels. Conferences often, but not always, include teams from a common geographic region. The AFL Women's competition used a non-geographic conference system in 2019 and 2020 . The league

2800-461: Is considered to have a significant advantage over the away or visiting team. Due to this, many important games (such as playoff or elimination matches) in many sports have special rules for determining what match is played where. In association football , matches with two legs , one game played in each team's "home", are common. It is also common to hold important games, such as the Super Bowl , at

2912-412: Is debated. Most of these are psychological in nature: the home teams are familiar with the playing venue; they can lodge in their homes, rather than in a hotel, and so have less far to travel before the game; and they have the psychological support of the home fans. Other factors, however, are easier to detect and can have noticeable effects on the outcome of the game. In American football , for instance,

3024-437: Is divided into an American Football Conference (AFC) and a National Football Conference (NFC). Both conferences have 16 teams, and each conference is divided into 4 divisions of 4 teams each. These conferences, for the most part, derive from the fact that they were once separate organizations: the original National Football League and the 1960s American Football League ; the two entities merged in 1970, with each league forming

3136-403: Is not applicable for no-hit major league baseball games for pitchers who either replicated performance by winning two or more no-hitters or amassed a large number of career wins. Their general finding was that home-field advantage is a metric for the inability to maintain performance independent of environment and that this metric is inversely related to variables of expertise. In recognition of

3248-654: Is part of NCAA Division I (specifically the Football Bowl Subdivision ), but is itself also subdivided into an East and West division. In English association football, the top level of non-League football —i.e., the level below the Premier League and the three tiers that make up the English Football League (EFL)—was known as the Football Conference from the 1986–87 season through the end of

3360-399: Is said to gain over the visiting team . This benefit has been attributed to psychological effects supporting fans have on the competitors or referees; to psychological or physiological advantages of playing near home in familiar situations; to the disadvantages away teams suffer from changing time zones or climates, or from the rigors of travel; and in some sports, to specific rules that favor

3472-430: Is said to have home-field advantage for that playoff series. During the course of these playoff series, however, sports announcers or columnists will sometimes mention a team "gaining" or "losing" home-field advantage. This can happen after a visiting team has just won a game in the series. In playoff series format, the home-field advantage is said to exist for whichever team would win the series if all remaining games in

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3584-576: Is that home team advantage in Spain is stronger. Spanish La Liga has the strongest home team advantage, and English football league two has the lowest home team advantage, among analysed leagues. Comparison of home advantage in 19 European football leagues between the 2007/2008 and 2016/2017 seasons was made in Marek and Vávra (2024). They found that, among the analysed leagues, the Super League Greece had

3696-730: Is the case in the NFL , MLB , and Stanley Cup playoffs . One exception to this was MLB's World Series , which from 2003 to 2016, awarded home-field advantage to the team representing the league which won the All-Star Game that year, to help raise interest in the All-Star Game after a tie in 2002 ; before 2003, home-field advantage alternated each year between the National League and the American League . Starting in 2017, home-field advantage in

3808-563: Is the highest level of provincial competition in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, the highest domestic level in Japan, and the only professional domestic level in Argentina. From the creation of Super Rugby in 1996 through 2015 , only Australia, New Zealand and South Africa participated; the competition added teams in the latter two countries in 2016 . Since the 2011 season , it has operated on

3920-550: Is total number of opponents in a league (this is Bayesian estimator ). To test hypothesis that home-field advantage is statistically significant we can compute P ( p 1 > p − 1 ) = 1 − I 1 / 2 ( k 1 + 1 , k − 1 + 1 ) {\displaystyle P(p_{1}>p_{-1})=1-I_{1/2}(k_{1}+1,k_{-1}+1)} , where I 1 / 2 ( ) {\displaystyle I_{1/2}()}

4032-604: Is uncommon because governing bodies typically implement measures to prevent national teams from jurisdictions with the most serious political disputes (for example, Spain and Gibraltar or Serbia and Kosovo ) from being drawn in the same group, but it does happen - for example, the Ukraine–Kosovo qualifier game for the 2018 World Championships was held in Krakow, Poland, because Ukraine does not recognize Kosovo and does not admit Kosovar nationals to its territory. In all such cases,

4144-459: The 2009-10 UEFA Europa League , Hapoel needed to acclimatize and were therefore at a disadvantage. Hapoel duly lost the match 3–0. This advantage, however, can also be a disadvantage to the home team, as weather conditions can impede the home team as much as the visitors: the Buffalo Bills , whose home stadium ( Highmark Stadium ) is subject to high and unpredictable winds and lake-effect snow in

4256-772: The FA Cup (open to teams from all levels), the EFL Cup (open only to teams from the Premier League and the English Football League), and the FA Trophy (open only to teams in the broader definition of the National League, plus the two tiers below it). The Kontinental Hockey League has a Western Conference and an Eastern Conference . This is similar to the NHL 's conferences in North America . In rugby union , Super Rugby

4368-540: The FIFA World Rankings . More recently, Bolivia beat Argentina , who were ranked sixth in the world, 6–1 on April 1, 2009, Argentina's heaviest defeat since 1958. In cricket , the condition of the pitch and the behaviour of the ball when it bounces off the pitch varies significantly in different parts of the world, and consequently the players on the visiting team must adjust to the ball behaving in an unfamiliar way to be successful on foreign surfaces; additionally,

4480-615: The Horizon League , Ivy League , Patriot League , Pioneer League and Summit League use the word "league" instead, and another conference calls itself the Coastal Athletic Association . The NCAA itself is divided into divisions and subdivisions based on athletic scholarship eligibility, which can lead to redundancy when these conferences also have divisions of their own. For instance, the Southeastern Conference

4592-492: The NBA Finals , the team with the better regular season record, regardless of seed, has home-court advantage. Rugby union's European Rugby Champions Cup also uses a seeding system to determine home advantage in the quarterfinals (though not in the semifinals, where the nominal "home" teams are determined by a blind draw). In many sports, playoffs consist of a 'series' of games played between two teams. These series are usually

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4704-602: The NHL Premiere , and from 2017 as the NHL Global Series . The 2019 NHL Heritage Classic was also a neutral site game, played in the non-NHL market of Regina, Saskatchewan —falling roughly halfway between the markets of the participating teams, the Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets . A requirement to play home matches at a neutral venue has been used as a punishment by UEFA for teams whose fans cause disturbances at

4816-516: The World Series . This put AL teams at a disadvantage when they played in NL parks, as AL pitchers were typically not used to batting nor baserunning. NL teams at AL parks were at a disadvantage because a player who did not play often had to bat an entire game, usually on consecutive nights. The NL team's DH was a pinch-hitter who batted perhaps once every two or three games during the season, or alternated in

4928-667: The test for homogeneity of parallel samples (for the test see Rao (2002) ). The second proposed approach is based on distance between estimated probability description of home team advantage in two leagues ( p ^ r = k r K , r = − 1 , 0 , 1 {\displaystyle {\hat {p}}_{r}={\frac {k_{r}}{K}},r=-1,0,1} ) which can be measured by Jeffrey divergence (a symmetric version of Kullback–Leibler divergence ). They tested five top level English football leagues and two top level Spanish leagues between 2007/2008 and 2016/2017 season. The main result

5040-409: The "visitor" when games are played at neither team's home field. Likewise, there are uncommon instances in which a team playing a game at their home venue is officially the visiting team, and their opponent officially the home team, such as when a game originally scheduled to play at one venue must be postponed and is later resumed at the other team's venue. In most team sports, the home or hosting team

5152-650: The 1976 Montreal Olympics, the only Summer Games at which the hosting country failed to win a single gold medal.) The strength of the home advantage varies for different sports, regions, seasons, and divisions. For all sports, it seems to be strongest in the early period after the creation of a new league. The effect seems to have become somewhat weaker in some sports in recent decades. Adams & Kupper (1994) described home-field advantage as an expertise deficiency. They demonstrated that, in theory and in practice, home-field advantage decreases as superiority of performance increases. They also showed that home-field advantage

5264-523: The 2014–15 season. In turn, from 2004, the Conference was divided into three leagues—Conference Premier, at the fifth tier of the English football pyramid , and Conference North and Conference South, which made up the sixth tier. Starting with the 2015–16 season, the Football Conference and its component leagues were renamed. The Football Conference and Conference Premier were both renamed "National League", and

5376-498: The 2015–16 season, the playoff spots go to the eight top teams in each conference by overall record, with home-court advantage in each playoff series based solely on record. Major League Soccer (MLS) also divides itself into an Eastern and Western Conference , though it does not have divisions within them; it too allocates an equal number of teams from each conference to play for its MLS Cup Playoffs (since 2019, this has been seven teams each). The National Football League (NFL)

5488-557: The Celtics, who were more likely to be familiar with the playing surface, an advantage. During the 1985–1986 season , the Larry Bird -led Celtics posted a home court record of 40–1; this record still stands in the NBA . Memorial Gymnasium , the venue for men's and women's basketball at Vanderbilt University , was built in 1952 with the team benches at the ends of the court instead of along one of

5600-510: The Dome than in other ballparks. While this is no longer an issue for opponents of the Minnesota Twins with that team's 2010 move to the open-air Target Field , it remained important to the many college baseball teams that played games in the Dome until its late 2013 closing. Hard Rock Stadium , the home stadium of the NFL's Miami Dolphins , is designed in such a way that when the sun is overhead,

5712-610: The Mid Atlantic Conference admitted the full memberships of the New England and Southern Conferences, changing its name to the Mid Atlantic Conference with 39 varsity and club member schools. The following year, the conference went co-ed, raising the number of member teams to 55. As the organization expanded into the Midwest in 1995, the referees from the Eastern Water Polo Referees Association opted to go on strike, so

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5824-513: The South African teams were joined by the Jaguares and Sunwolves in a "South African" group, with that group also being divided into two conferences. The winner of each conference continued to receive a playoff spot, with additional berths going to the next three best Australasian teams and the next best team of the South African group. For 2018, Super Rugby will revert to a 15-team format, following

5936-541: The World Series is nowadays given to the team with the best regular season record. Home-ice advantage in the Stanley Cup Finals is given to the team with the best season record. The NBA is the only league that has home-court advantage based solely on which team has the best record (using various tiebreakers to settle the question should the teams finish with identical records). For most championship series, such as

6048-469: The ability of a pitcher to throw an effective breaking ball . The low humidity also causes baseballs to dry out, making it harder for pitchers to grip them and further reducing their ability to throw breaking balls. The Colorado Rockies have a very large home advantage. This anomaly has been countered with Colorado's innovative use of humidors to keep the baseballs from drying out. Denver's altitude advantage has also come into play in gridiron football ;

6160-432: The arena an extremely poor reputation, including a slanted ice surface that forced opponents to skate the majority of the game uphill and lack of showers for the visiting team. Sports Illustrated , in a 17 January 2011 article, reported that home crowds, rigor of travel for visiting teams, scheduling, and unique home field characteristics, were not factors in giving home teams an advantage. The journal concluded that it

6272-469: The away team won 1,149 games (47.4%). These totals do not include the six games played at neutral sites (though all of the neutral-site games had a designated "home" team). In the 2018–19 NBA regular season , the home team won 729 games (59%), and the away team won 501 games (41%). Across the 2008 , 2010 , and 2011 seasons of the Indian Premier League , the home team won 95 games (54.3%), and

6384-435: The away team won 80 games (45.7%). At least some degree of home field advantage has been recorded in almost every National Football League season; each year, designated home teams have won more games than lost. The 2020 NFL season , played in empty and near-empty stadiums , was the first in which no significant advantage was recorded: home teams that year finished 127–128–1 (.498). In the 2019 Stanley Cup playoffs , for

6496-467: The basis of the NFC and AFC respectively. The NFL allocates seven teams from each conference for the NFL playoffs ; the four division winners (guaranteed one of the top four seeds, based on winning percentage), and the three best-non division winners, also known as wild cards . Major League Baseball (MLB) does not use the word "conference." Instead, it is divided into two separate leagues which are identical to

6608-399: The bottom half of the ninth inning or any extra inning, the game ends immediately if the home team takes the lead; the visiting team does not get another opportunity to score and the home team does not have to protect their lead. On the other hand, if the visiting team has the lead when the top half of the ninth inning or extra inning ends, the home team still gets an opportunity to score and so

6720-407: The centre-ice spot; when a face-off takes place anywhere else on the ice, the defending centre has to place his stick first. The centre who is allowed to place his stick last gains the ability to time the face-off better and gives him greater odds of winning it. The third advantage is that the home team has the benefit of choosing whether to take the first or second attempt in a shootout. In baseball,

6832-514: The competition's rebranding as the United Rugby Championship. For the first season under the URC name in 2021–22, the competition reorganized into four regionally based pools, though no longer using the word "conference". Three of the pools are made up of teams from one country—Ireland, South Africa, and Wales. The fourth features the teams from Italy and Scotland. Each regional pool competes for

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6944-1596: The conference established its own refereeing bureau. With 95 teams from the Northeast , Midwest , and South , the conference took its present name in 1996. The CWPA continued expanding, entering the Northwest in 1998, the Great Plains and California in 1999, and now has membership in 43 of the contiguous 48 States . Atlantic Division Big Ten Division Colonial Division Florida Division Great Lakes Division Heartland Division Mid Atlantic Division A Mid Atlantic Division B Missouri Valley Division New England Division New York Division Eastern Region New York Division Western Region North Atlantic Division Northwest Division Pacific Coast Division Rocky Mountain Division Sierra Pacific Division Southeast Division Southwest Division Texas Division Atlantic Division Big Ten Division Heartland Division Mid Atlantic Division Midwest Division New England Division New York Division North Atlantic Division Northwest Division Pacific Coast Division Rocky Mountain Division Sierra Pacific Division Southeast Division Southwest Division Texas Division Athletic conference An athletic conference

7056-674: The conferences listed above in all but name (which, although their operations have been integrated via the Commissioner of Baseball in modern times, were originally separately managed organizations with an intense rivalry). These are the American League (AL) and National League (NL), with 15 teams each. Each league is divided into the Eastern ( AL , NL ), Central ( AL , NL ), and Western ( AL , NL ) divisions, with all six divisions having 5 teams each. Each league produces six teams for postseason play , with each division winner also guaranteed one of

7168-409: The crowd often makes as much noise as it can when the visiting team is about to run a play. That can make it very difficult for the visiting team's quarterback to call audible play changes, or for any player to hear the snap count . In contrast, the crowd is often quiet while the home team is on offense, and that enables the quarterback to use the hard count intended to draw the defense offsides as

7280-521: The crowd will be in support of the home team. Stadium announcers in many sports will emphasize the home team's goals and lineup to excite the crowd. Ryan Boyko, a research assistant in the Department of Psychology in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University , studied 5,000 English Premier League games from 1992 to 2006, to discern any officiating bias and the influence of home crowds. The data

7392-494: The defenders. A similar effect has been observed in football with testosterone levels being significantly higher in home games than in away games. Goalkeepers, the last line of defense, have particularly strong testosterone changes when playing against a bitter rival as compared to a training season. How testosterone may influence results is unclear but may include cognitive effects such as motivation and physiological effects such as reaction time. An extreme example of home advantage

7504-409: The defense can hear the hard count. In basketball , when a visiting player is making a free throw , home fans behind the backboard typically wave their arms or other objects in an attempt to break the visiting player's focus on making the shot. Environmental factors such as weather and altitude are easy to measure, yet their effects are debatable, as both teams have to play in the same conditions; but

7616-639: The difficulty in winning away matches, cup competitions in association football often invoke the away goals rule . Away goals can also sometimes be used to separate teams level on points and goal difference in league competitions. There are many causes that attribute to home advantage, such as crowd involvement (for instance Marek and Vávra (2024) conducted a study on ice hockey results during COVID-19, where no spectators were allowed at matches), travel considerations, and environmental factors. The most commonly cited factors of home advantage are usually factors which are difficult to measure and so even their existence

7728-505: The dropping of two teams from South Africa and one from Australia. The new format features three conferences—Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, each with five teams; the Sunwolves will join the Australian conference and the Jaguares will play in the South African conference. The conference winners will continue to receive playoff berths, with additional berths going to the top five teams in

7840-500: The event, thus in most cases they outnumber the visitors' fans (although in local derbies and crosstown rivalries this may not always be the case). In some sports, such as association football , sections of the stadium will be reserved for supporters of one team or the other (to prevent fan violence) but the home team's fans will have the bulk of the seating available to them. In addition, stadium/arena light shows , sound effects , fireworks , cheerleaders , and other means to enliven

7952-414: The finals (one from each conference/league) and the records of teams outside a conference/league are ignored, which can allow teams with inferior records to make the playoffs while teams in the other conference with better records do not get in. An extreme example of this has occurred three times in the NFL, when the 2010 Seattle Seahawks , 2014 Carolina Panthers , and 2020 Washington Football Team reached

8064-571: The first time in NHL history all division winners (who had home-ice advantage) were eliminated in the first round as all the wild-cards advanced to the second round. The Columbus Blue Jackets won a playoff series for the first time, defeating the first-place Lightning in four games, and marking the first time in Stanley Cup playoff history that the Presidents' Trophy winners were swept in the opening round, and

8176-593: The first time since 2012 that the Presidents' Trophy winners were defeated in the opening round. They were soon followed by the Calgary Flames , who with their five-game loss to the Colorado Avalanche , ensured that for the first time in NHL history, neither of the conference number one seeds advanced to the second round. After that, the two remaining division winners, the Nashville Predators and Washington Capitals , were each eliminated in an overtime game,

8288-516: The home sideline is in the shade while the visitors sideline is directly in the suns path. This, combined with the hot tropical climate South Florida receives, can lead to differences of up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit or more between the two sidelines, with the visiting sideline temperature getting as high as 120 °F (49 °C). The parquet floor at the Boston Celtics ' former home of Boston Garden contained many defects, which were said to give

8400-446: The home team directly or indirectly. In baseball and cricket in particular, the difference may also be the result of the home team having been assembled to take advantage of the idiosyncrasies of the home ballpark / ground , such as the distances to the outfield walls / boundaries ; most other sports are played in standardized venues. The term is also widely used in "best-of" playoff formats (e.g., best-of-seven) as being given to

8512-698: The home team has the right to adjust the preparation of its pitches in a manner which specifically enhances its own strengths or exacerbates its opponent's weaknesses. The weather can also play a major factor. For example, the February average temperature minimum in Tel Aviv , Israel is 50 °F (10 °C), while the average at the same time in Kazan , Russia is 10 °F (−12 °C), with snow being common. This means that when Rubin Kazan played at home to Hapoel Tel Aviv in

8624-529: The home team may be more acclimated to local conditions with difficult environments, such as extremely warm or cold weather, or high altitude (such as the case of Denver teams , as well as the Mexico national football team , many of whose home matches are played in Mexico City ). The stadium or arena will typically be filled with home supporters , who are sometimes described as being as valuable as an extra player for

8736-412: The home team to obtain favorable player matchups. This rule makes the home team designation important even in games played on neutral ice. Traditionally, the second advantage was that when lining up for the face-off , the away team's centre always had to place his stick on the ice before the centre of the home team. However, in both the NHL and international rule sets, this now applies only for face-offs at

8848-627: The home team were to win each game, then the 76ers would have won four games, the Lakers would have won three games, and the 76ers would have won the series, so we say that Philadelphia had the home-court advantage. However, the visiting Lakers won Game 1. Los Angeles now had one win, and there were three games remaining at each arena. The home team went on to win all of the remaining games in that series, so Los Angeles won four games, while Philadelphia won two (Game 7, which would have been played in Philadelphia,

8960-403: The home team – which bats in the bottom half of each inning – enjoys the advantage of being able to end the game immediately if it has the lead in the ninth inning (or other scheduled final inning) or in extra innings . If the home team is leading at the end of the top half of the ninth inning, the game ends without the bottom half being played. If the home team is trailing or the score is tied in

9072-447: The home team. The home fans can sometimes create a psychological lift by cheering loudly for their team when good things happen in the game. The home crowd can also intimidate visiting players by booing , whistling , or heckling . Generally the home fans vastly outnumber the visiting team's supporters. While some visiting fans may travel to attend the game, home team fans will generally have better access to tickets and easier transport to

9184-482: The host team is familiar with the unique dimensions of their home field yielding them advantages (pitching, hitting, fielding) over visiting teams. Before the Major League Baseball labor agreement that ended the 2021–22 lockout saw the designated hitter added permanently in the National League, the home league's rules concerning the designated hitter (DH) were followed during interleague games, including

9296-488: The late fall and early winter, regularly suffer large numbers of injuries late in the season. Sometimes the unique attributes of a stadium create a home-field advantage. The unique off-white Teflon -coated roof of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome trapped and reflected noise to such an extent that it was distracting or even harmful. This, combined with the color of the roof, caused opposing baseball players to commit more errors in

9408-419: The league season, the teams that top each conference table received berths in the semifinals, with the next two teams in each conference playing off for semifinal berths. After the 2020–21 season, South Africa fully aligned its club rugby structure with that of Europe. The then-existing Pro14 franchises from South Africa were replaced by the country's four Super Rugby franchises, which moved into Pro14 and led to

9520-415: The match is still treated as a "home" match for such purposes as implementing the away goals rule . In North America, Major League Soccer formerly hosted its MLS Cup final at a neutral site. Since 2012 , the game has been held at the venue of the participating team that had the better regular season record. In the 2018 Major League Baseball regular season , the home team won 1,277 games (52.6%), and

9632-495: The overall competition table that were not already qualified. In the same sport, Pro14, now known as the United Rugby Championship , adopted a conference system effective in 2017–18 , following the addition of the two South African teams dropped from Super Rugby. The competition split into two conferences, each featuring two teams from Ireland and Wales, plus single teams from Italy, Scotland and South Africa. Following

9744-531: The participating teams. Regardless, tickets are allocated equally between both competing teams, even if one happens to be playing in its own stadium. Neutral-venue matches may arise out of necessity. For example, on December 12, 2010, the roof of the Minnesota Vikings ' stadium, the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome collapsed due to a snowstorm. The Vikings were supposed to play against the New York Giants at

9856-548: The playoffs by winning their respective divisions despite losing records (7–9 for the Seahawks and Washington, 7–8–1 for the Panthers). These are the only teams ever to qualify for the playoffs with losing records in seasons that were not shortened by strikes (as in 1982 , which was shortened from 16 to 9 games). In addition, a team's regular season schedule is weighted towards more games against other teams within their own division and to

9968-454: The regular season. An example is UEFA Champions League , UEFA Europa League and UEFA Europa Conference League home and away legs, with weaker teams often beating the favourites when playing at home. The World Cup victories of Uruguay (1930), Italy (1934), England (1966), Germany (1974), Argentina (1978) and France (1998) are all in part attributed to the fact that the World Cup

10080-462: The replay is given to the other team. For certain sporting events, home advantage may be removed by use of a neutral venue. This may be a national stadium that is not a home stadium to any club (for example Wembley Stadium hosts the FA Cup Final and semi-finals). Alternatively the neutral venue may be the home stadium of another club, such as was used historically to stage FA Cup semi-finals. If

10192-549: The second longest field goal in National Football League history took place in Denver, as did the longest recorded punt . The national association football team of Bolivia also enjoys the advantage of playing at high altitude: at home during World Cup qualifiers at the even more extreme 3,600 m (11,800 ft) altitude of La Paz they have even been known to beat Brazil , a team regularly ranked number one in

10304-686: The series are won by the home team for that game . Therefore, it is possible for a visiting team to win a game and, hence, gain home-field advantage. This is somewhat similar to the concept of losing serve in tennis . As an example, in the 1982 NBA Finals , the Los Angeles Lakers played the Philadelphia 76ers , with the 76ers having earned home court advantage because of a better regular season record. Four games were scheduled to be played in Philadelphia, while three were scheduled in Los Angeles. If

10416-488: The sidelines, a setup that was not unusual at the time. However, the configuration is now unique in U.S. major-college sports, and has been said to give the Commodores an edge because opposing coaches are not used to directing their teams from the baseline. Cherry Hill Arena , a New Jersey –based arena in the southern suburbs of Philadelphia , had a number of idiosyncrasies that its home teams used to their advantage but earned

10528-748: The stadium the next day. The game was moved to the Detroit Lions ' stadium, Ford Field . The following week, the Vikings' Monday Night Football game against the Chicago Bears was moved to the University of Minnesota 's TCF Bank Stadium . As part of a settlement for a 1992 strike by the NHL Players Association , the National Hockey League scheduled two neutral-site games for each team in

10640-427: The stamina of athletes whose bodies are not used to it. Although baseball is less aerobically demanding than many other sports, high altitude affects that sport's game play in several important ways. Denver's combination of altitude and a semi-arid climate (the city averages only about 16 in/400 mm precipitation annually) allows fly balls to travel about 10% farther than at sea level, and also slightly reduces

10752-433: The strongest home advantage and English Football League Two had the lowest home advantage. During the regular season for a sport, in the interest of fairness, schedulers try to ensure that each team plays an equal number of home and away games. Thus, having home-field advantage for any particular regular-season game is largely due to random chance. (This is only true for fully organized leagues with structured schedules; for

10864-406: The team that is scheduled to play one more game at home than their opponent if all necessary games are played. In many sports, such designations may also apply to games played at a neutral site, as the rules of various sports make different provisions for home and visiting teams. In baseball , for instance, the visiting team always bats first in each inning. Therefore, one team must be chosen to be

10976-485: The team wears its away uniforms only when its primary jerseys would clash with the colors of the home team, while other leagues mandate that visiting teams must always wear their away colors regardless. However, sometimes teams wear their alternative uniforms by choice. This is especially true in North American sports where generally one uniform is white or grey, and "Color vs. color" games (e.g., blue vs. red uniforms) are

11088-481: The top three seeds, even if their record is lower than the league's top wild card teams . In all five sports, the champion of one conference (or league in MLB's case) plays the champion of the other conference for the final round championship, this is guaranteed to occur because the rules for the playoffs require play to be exclusively within the conference/league in all rounds before the final round, leaving only two teams for

11200-407: The two regional leagues were renamed National League North and National League South . This does not strictly meet the definition indicated in the previous sections of this article, as each individual league mentioned in this section is a separate competition. The only times that teams from different leagues compete against one another in meaningful matches are in knockout cup competitions, such as

11312-511: The venue is chosen before the start of the competition however, it is still possible for one team to gain home field advantage. For example, in the European Cup/UEFA Champions League, there have been four instances where a club has managed to reach the final hosted in its own stadium ( 1957 , 1965 , 1984 , and 2012 ). Most recently Bayern Munich played (and lost) the 2012 final at their home stadium of Allianz Arena , as it

11424-452: The visiting team must protect their lead. In addition, in the late innings, the home team knows how many runs they need to win or tie, and can therefore strategize accordingly. For example, in a tie game in the ninth inning or extra innings, the home team may employ strategies such as bunting or stealing bases , which oftentimes increase the chance of scoring one run, but decrease the chance of scoring multiple runs. Additionally in baseball,

11536-461: Was because of this that the conference system was removed for the 2021 season . In the United States and Canada , the National Hockey League (NHL) and National Basketball Association (NBA) are divided into Eastern ( NHL , NBA ) and Western ( NHL , NBA ) Conferences, with multiple divisions within each conference (two in each NHL conference, three in each NBA conference). In both leagues,

11648-515: Was chosen as the venue in January 2010. In the Champions League Final, however, if the "home" shirt colors of both teams conflict (e.g. both are red) then there is a draw which assigns one of the teams their "away" shirt. The NFL 's Super Bowl is also played in a venue chosen years in advance of the game. Super Bowl LV in 2021 was the first Super Bowl in which one of the participating teams

11760-400: Was divided into two conferences, based on ladder position in the previous season. Not every team could play each other due to the limited number of rounds, so conferences were introduced so that teams were only measured against the teams they played. The system was controversial because it allowed some weak teams to make finals, and strong teams from the other conference missed out on finals. It

11872-436: Was favorable treatment by game officials and referees that conferred advantages on home teams. They stated that sports officials are unwittingly and psychologically influenced by home crowds and the influence is significant enough to affect the outcomes of sporting events in favor of the home team. Other research has found that crowd support, travel fatigue, geographical distance, pitch familiarity, and referee bias do not have

11984-543: Was held in the winner's country. A 2006 study by The Times found that in the English Premiership , a home team can be expected to score 37.29% more goals than the away team, though this changes depending on the quality of the teams involved. Others have suggested that the increase in British medals during the 2012 Olympics may have been impacted by home court advantage. (However, having home court did not help Canada at

12096-542: Was introduced and applied by Marek and Vávra (2017) on English Premier League seasons 1992/1993 – 2015/2016. Later, the procedure was finalised in Marek and Vávra (2020). Marek and Vávra (2018) described procedure which allows to use observed counts of combined measure of home team advantage ( k 1 {\displaystyle k_{1}} , k 0 {\displaystyle k_{0}} , and k − 1 {\displaystyle k_{-1}} ) in two leagues to be compared by

12208-407: Was omitted, as even if the 76ers won, they'd still lose the series 4–3). Since the Lakers won the series in this scenario, it is said that they have taken home-court advantage away from the 76ers. In some cup competitions, (for example the FA Cup in all rounds prior to the semi-final), home advantage is determined by a random drawing. However, if the initial match is drawn (tied), home advantage for

12320-638: Was playing in its home stadium, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers played at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida . The next year saw the Los Angeles Rams play Super Bowl LVI at their home of SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California . Both games were awarded to their respective locations in 2017. Two other Super Bowls ( XIV in 1980 and XIX in 1985) were played in neutral stadiums in the market area of one of

12432-566: Was published in the Journal of Sports Sciences and suggested that for every additional 10,000 people attending, home team advantage increased by 0.1 goals. Additionally, his study found that home teams are likely to be awarded more penalty kicks , and this is more likely with inexperienced referees . Further, home players can be accustomed to peculiar environmental conditions of their home area. The city of Denver , being one mile (1.6 km) above sea level, has thinner air, enough so that it affects

12544-536: Was the 2013 Nigeria Premier League ; each of the 20 teams lost at most 3 of 19 home matches and won at most 3 of 19 away matches. Paul Doyle ascribed this to visiting teams' facing "violent crowds, questionable refereeing and [...] [a]rriving just before kick-off after long road trips, often on hazardous surfaces". The 2020–21 NHL season saw major disruption due to COVID-19-restricted conditions that resulted in bubble playoffs and ghost games, as fans were unable to attend in person. New research has shown that this led to

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