Home Field Advantage?

Lots of Silly Season talk lately about the "toughest place to play" in FBS football as a result of the upcoming release of EA Sports College Football 25. (LINK)

I'll leave it to someone else to see if the won-loss records around the Ivy League indicate that one school has had a disproportionate amount of success on its home field. For today, I'll just offer up how the numbers shape up for Dartmouth since the Big Green started to win regularly in 2010:

Dartmouth's combined home and away record since 2010: 86-42 (.672)*

Dartmouth's home record since 2010: 44-21 (.677)

Dartmouth's road record since 2010: 42-21 (.667)

* Does not include neutral field wins over Brown at Fenway Park in 2017 and Princeton at Yankee Stadium in 2019. The overall record counting those games is 88-42 (.677)

What does that tell us?

Two things.

First, Dartmouth is on a pretty solid 13-year run.

And second, while the Big Green has a marginally better record at Memorial Field than on the road, the pure numbers do not show a significant home field advantage.

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From Dartmouth football social media:

Manning Passing Academy x Jackson Proctor #TheWoods pic.twitter.com/41Kfuc9Xfm

— Dartmouth Football (@DartmouthFTBL) June 28, 2024

The Manning Passing Academy began Thursday and finishes up Sunday.

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EXTRA POINT
Today is the anniversary of President Eisenhower signing The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. That provided the blueprint for today's Interstate Highway System, which in my opinion is a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because you can get from here to there much faster than you could before the interstates were built (unless you drive an old VW bus ;-). But at what cost?

Charles Kuralt pretty much nailed it when he wrote, "Thanks to the interstate highway system, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything."

William Least Heat Moon took it a step further, writing: "Life doesn't happen along interstates. It's against the law."