(January 8, 2017 at 9:27 pm)Brian37 Wrote:(January 8, 2017 at 9:14 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: The #1 seed has won 23 of the 50 super bowls so far, and 46 #1 seeds have made it to the Super Bowl.
Being the #1 seed in itself says something about the team, so whether they win because of home field advantage is hard to judge. They were the best team in their respective divisions for a reason. But teams historically have a better record at home than away, so it does play a factor.
http://www.espn.com/blog/playbook/visual...ds-succeed
ETA: The last three seasons weren't included on the above infographic, but all three seasons saw two #1 seeds meeting in the Super Bowl, with a #1 seed obviously winning.
That is what I thought the entire time. It is only a slight help when you do the math, but ultimately a crap shoot. Heck even 9-7 teams have gone on to win the Superbowl all be it rare.
Which makes me wonder if my Dallas Patriots pick for the Supebowl will pan out. Personally I only picked them because both are tough to play at home, but at the same time I hope I am wrong. I would rather see two other teams go.
But it clearly is a massive help. There are six seeds. If it made no difference, it would be evenly distributed. If it were evenly distributed, they would have only won 8 or 9. The other 27 winners are split five ways into mostly #2 seeds, a couple #3 seeds, and and a handful of lower seeds. Several times when the #2 seed made it, they had home field throughout because of the #1 seed losing in the divisional round.
This is really solid evidence that home field advantage is a help. Shit, the Steelers proved how valuable home field can be today. They got critical, scoring drive conversions on offsides penalties not once but twice in the game today because of crowd noise and hard counts. I thought it was pretty evident that those numbers prove that home field advantage is huge in football.
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