Setting the away game table
Was checking out Phil Steele's blog yesterday where he ranked all 120 teams according to home field edges. Naturally I wanted to see where our home ranked; Sanford is 14th.
But as I delved deeper into his explanation for how he arrives at the final ranking I was even more curious to see where our hardest away games would be. Teams' stadium capacity, attendance, % of capacity, and home records are taken into account. So I lined up our schedule with Steele's rankings and here's what we've got:
- Tennessee - ranked tied for 26th with an edge of 4.5
- Georgia Tech - ranked tied for 32nd with an edge of 4.25*
- Ole Miss - ranked tied for 57th with an edge of 3.75
- Vanderbilt - ranked tied for 104th with an edge of 2.5
First off, we're lucky we get Boise State and Florida at neutral locations. They rank tied for 1st and tied for 6th respectively. Plus it only gives us four true road games this season. This may not seem like a large factor at this point and is gathering dust compared to the fact that UGA evades Bama, LSU and Arkansas in 2011. But should we lose an early game (especially to a conference opponent) it's going to help that the highest team up there for us is a team still reeling rebuilding...and has a quarterback who needs his named ink'd to his back as a reminder.
*one could argue that this one isn't a true road game. All Dawgs eat free hot dogs and guzzle cokes at Historic Mark Richt Field.
1 comment:
I've said it before as to why Sanford is not the ultimate home field advantage, so I'll say it again.
Of the 92K, I would say over half are there for the party and thus could care less about the game, so when push comes to shove, they have left and make no noise. Of the remaining fans, they are yelling into a stadium that has a big hole in it. Now from what I have heard, the band is now in that hole, so that should help.
I also believe it's time to move folks around a bit. I rarely get to the games anymore, but the times I'm there I see the same thing, the Students are too spread out and the old money folks are too grouped together. Heaven forbid you mix the students with the money.
BTW, I feel the same way about the hoops seating.
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