When it comes to at least one college football stat, it seems the big dogs from Alabama to Arkansas and everyone else in between don’t have anything on the Mean Green.
A new study published in the Wall Street Journal ranked the University of North Texas as having the best statistical home-field advantage in all of college football.
According to WSJ, the study by the statistical outlet Prediction Machine looked at teams from 2000 until now based on performance at home relative to on the road, taking into account things like competition and expectations.
In that mixture of stats they found UNT to have an adjusted home-field advantage of 5.94 points with the next closest team, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, coming in at 5.77 points.
Journal writer Andrew Beaton said although UNT only went 39-40 in that time, the team was “better than expected based on the team’s total performance.”
The ranking was a bit of a shock to many students on campus Monday, but several said they were happy to see the recognition and hoped it would serve as a boost to the team going into their first game at Southern Methodist University this weekend.
UNT head football coach Dan MacCarney also seemed pleased with the findings, tweeting over the weekend:
The Mean Green won’t actually have a chance to test that advantage this season until Sept. 19 against Rice, who ranked seventh in the study.
Elsewhere in the ranking, Baylor came in sixth and SMU was ranked at 65th.
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Coming in last was Florida State who has three consecutive conference titles and a 2013 national championship; proving home-field advantage isn’t everything.
