How strong is home-field advantage in D3?

[PA_wesleyfan]

 my apologies to all H-SC fans and players...
I do disagree though  k-mack .. The noise facto sure seemed to disrupt the play calling and sinal calling in that Del Val game and even those few moments last week agains  H-SC  8)

[AUPepBand]

That dude is the man.

It's H-SC, by the way, for Hampden-Sydney. Seen it all kinds of ways over the site, HCS and whatnot. But HSU can be mistaken for Hardin-Simmons.

I think there are definitely home field advantages but they can be subtle and vary from team to team. In other words, I've played in games where I noticed the crowd was loud, but I wouldn't say it bothered me in how I played. Usually if I was prepared well, I played well. If the other guy was just better than me, I didn't.

Wet grass, the feel of the cold ball against bare hands (never wore gloves, probably dumb, just too broke for some Neumanns), rain, long rides, your body being tired, being slow to get warmed up ... there's all kinds of factors.

How much of it you can directly attribute to the site of the game is debatable.

I think there are some loud crowds in D3, but as a player, you usually hear all crowd noise as background noise once a play is about to begin. I remember looking into the crowd and listening to pep bands during timeouts and stuff.
FWIW.

Pep, always grateful for compliments, accepts this statement as a compliment for the AU Pep Band, which this season played at 11 of Alfred's 11 games, during which the 8-3 Saxons were 6-0 at home and, unfortunately, 0-3 through their regular season on-the-road gauntlet at Hobart, Ithaca and Fisher. Pep has been told by AU Coach Dave Murray that the band is good for at least 7 points for the Saxons on game day. Pep appreciates those students who gave up their Saterdays for the Saxons, and those who supported the band by purchasing pep bandannas and offering their thanks at each game. Special kudos to Alfredfootball.com webmaster Cindy on a fabulous job.

On Saxon Warriors!

[Jonny Utah]

That dude is the man.

It's H-SC, by the way, for Hampden-Sydney. Seen it all kinds of ways over the site, HCS and whatnot. But HSU can be mistaken for Hardin-Simmons.

I think there are definitely home field advantages but they can be subtle and vary from team to team. In other words, I've played in games where I noticed the crowd was loud, but I wouldn't say it bothered me in how I played. Usually if I was prepared well, I played well. If the other guy was just better than me, I didn't.

Wet grass, the feel of the cold ball against bare hands (never wore gloves, probably dumb, just too broke for some Neumanns), rain, long rides, your body being tired, being slow to get warmed up ... there's all kinds of factors.

How much of it you can directly attribute to the site of the game is debatable.

I think there are some loud crowds in D3, but as a player, you usually hear all crowd noise as background noise once a play is about to begin. I remember looking into the crowd and listening to pep bands during timeouts and stuff.
FWIW.

Pep, always grateful for compliments, accepts this statement as a compliment for the AU Pep Band, which this season played at 11 of Alfred's 11 games, during which the 8-3 Saxons were 6-0 at home and, unfortunately, 0-3 through their regular season on-the-road gauntlet at Hobart, Ithaca and Fisher. Pep has been told by AU Coach Dave Murray that the band is good for at least 7 points for the Saxons on game day. Pep appreciates those students who gave up their Saterdays for the Saxons, and those who supported the band by purchasing pep bandannas and offering their thanks at each game. Special kudos to Alfredfootball.com webmaster Cindy on a fabulous job.

On Saxon Warriors!

As a player for Ithaca back in the mid 1990s, I remember our defense getting distracted by the Alfred Pep band and letting up a touchdown because of it.  Big distraction.

(We won 52-7)

[AUPepBand]

That dude is the man.

It's H-SC, by the way, for Hampden-Sydney. Seen it all kinds of ways over the site, HCS and whatnot. But HSU can be mistaken for Hardin-Simmons.

I think there are definitely home field advantages but they can be subtle and vary from team to team. In other words, I've played in games where I noticed the crowd was loud, but I wouldn't say it bothered me in how I played. Usually if I was prepared well, I played well. If the other guy was just better than me, I didn't.

Wet grass, the feel of the cold ball against bare hands (never wore gloves, probably dumb, just too broke for some Neumanns), rain, long rides, your body being tired, being slow to get warmed up ... there's all kinds of factors.

How much of it you can directly attribute to the site of the game is debatable.

I think there are some loud crowds in D3, but as a player, you usually hear all crowd noise as background noise once a play is about to begin. I remember looking into the crowd and listening to pep bands during timeouts and stuff.
FWIW.

Pep, always grateful for compliments, accepts this statement as a compliment for the AU Pep Band, which this season played at 11 of Alfred's 11 games, during which the 8-3 Saxons were 6-0 at home and, unfortunately, 0-3 through their regular season on-the-road gauntlet at Hobart, Ithaca and Fisher. Pep has been told by AU Coach Dave Murray that the band is good for at least 7 points for the Saxons on game day. Pep appreciates those students who gave up their Saterdays for the Saxons, and those who supported the band by purchasing pep bandannas and offering their thanks at each game. Special kudos to Alfredfootball.com webmaster Cindy on a fabulous job.

On Saxon Warriors!

As a player for Ithaca back in the mid 1990s, I remember our defense getting distracted by the Alfred Pep band and letting up a touchdown because of it.  Big distraction.

(We won 52-7)

That's hilarious, JU. Pep doesn't remember AU having a pep band in 1997 when Ithaca won, 52-7 on Merrill Field. Pep believes IC's Pep Band might have been at Merrill Field that day ...could the Bomber band been a distraction? There was a pre-Pep pep band at AU but Pep can't remember exactly what years it existed. Was a hit-or-miss affair for a few years. Either way, Pep was at the game and perhaps provided enough distraction himself to get AU into the end zone once.

[PA_wesleyfan]

I find it hard to believe Jonny Utah remembers any of 1997

[old ends]

Interesting article on home field advantage in the NFL. not the same as DIV III, but good rum of numbers.

www.twominutewarning.com/hfa.htm