The Wall Street Journal did an article on this a couple of years ago, and concluded that the road team wins 34% of the time, nationwide. So, it is hard to win on the road in the MAC. But no harder than anywhere else.
A few other notes. (MAC play only)
- Except for Toledo, no team had a losing record at home in the conference.
- BG and NIU were 4-4 at home.
- Half of the MAC was 6-2 or better at home.
- Only Kent and Akron had winning records on the road.
- 5 of the 12 teams in the MAC won only 2 road games
Check out the major conferences' top teams OOC schedules. Many play 1 true road and many times lose. A couple of neutral site games as well. Duke is always a good example. I'd like a qualification rule to say you must have at least 3-4 true road games in OOC. It'll never happen but its what I want.
ReplyDeleteI'll add that if a team plays 2 neutral site games they can trade that for 1 true road game. The NCAA just is not strong enough to make rules like this anymore. Sadly they are desperate for the March madness revenue since they get nothing from football.
ReplyDeleteHey, Jim, thanks for reading and commenting. The NCAA is definitely not strong enough, plus the schools that run the NCAA are the same ones who benefit from these scheduling issues. The only success has been in the MVC, where teams are required to buy a home game every year to bring in some big opposition.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, the rules are not going to be fair. Yet, Northern Iowa, Cornell, and Butler are in the Sweet Sixteen! Hope for the MAC in future years, I hope, building on OU's win.