B1G Home vs Road conference game records
So I was curious how each team in the B1G was doing Home vs Away, and decided to do a quick compilation of some data. Here are resulting charts (H means home team won, A means away team won, N means that game does not happen, and U means it's an upcoming game still):
(click embiggens)
And a chart with just the records by team:
As most of us are aware, Michigan is the only team with a perfect record at home in the B1G so far this year. For as bad as Michigan has played on the road this year, Minnesota has the biggest difference in win percentage for home/road games. Michigan comes in at #2, and Iowa at #3.
The average B1G team wins 64% of their home games to just 36% of their away games. I'd be curious to see how that compares to other conferences, but I'm too lazy right now to try to dig up the data for that.
Nice work with the individual-team breakdowns.
In regards to how the Big Ten stacks up relative to other conferences, KenPom actually tracks this stat. The Big Ten is 9th out of 33 conferences in Home Win Pct.
The top conference is the Great West Conference, which, with only five members, has had only 18 conference games thus far, at 72.2%. The second-best conference in Home Win Pct. is the Mountain West Conference with 70.6% (48 of 68).
Very informative!
Sucks Michigan isn't 6-3 on the road like they should be...I know, I know, "let it go."
I agree with you that we definitely missed opportunities on the road, however, we could very well have easily lost to OSU and MSU at home, and be sitting at a 6-2 home record as well. All things considered we're about right where we should be record-wise, given our play (my opinion, of course).
7-2. GD Wisconsin...
First and foremost, this is a good piece of analysis by the OP. Thanks for sharing it.
Some select conference cumulative win / loss percentages from my own numbers, for comparison:
ACC - 58-38 at home (0.604 win percentage, or 0.396 on the road)
Big East - 89-55 at home (0.618 win percentage, or 0.382 on the road)
SEC - 67-29 at home (0.698 win percentage, or 0.302 on the road)
Big XII - 56-34 at home (0.622 win percentage, or 0.378 on the road)
...which is why it's funny to me that people discredit how good Gonzaga is this year because of their conference. But last year everyone KNEW Kentucky was #1 even though they didn't play ANYONE for 3 months in SEC play.
I suspect a crappy (relatively speaking) SEC is still much better than the West Coast Conference. Not to mention that UK laid waste to a lot of good nonconference teams last year.
One other field that would make the data even more informative would be the average number of fouls called against each team for home and away games. Assuming, as I suspect there is, a marked bias in favor of home teams, it would tell a lot about the quality or potential lack of objectivity of the refs.
A large part of Michigan's road record is schedule. We didnt get to play Iowa or Nebraska on the road. Still.....a half court shot away from a title lead and big road win.....grr.....
what sticks out to me is that Michigan is the best at home. Indiana is the best on the road! Yikes. Gonna be an interesting game coming up.
I'd definitely be worried.
Indiana's Road Games:
@Iowa, @Penn State, @Northwestern, @Purdue, @Illinois (L), @#10 Ohio State, @#4 MSU, @Minnesota (L). They beat the good teams on the road.
Michigan's Home Games:
Iowa, Nebraska, Purdue, Northwestern, #10 Ohio State, Penn State, Illinois, #9 MSU
Basically, while we are undefeated at home, it comes against pretty bad competition, and the wins over Ohio State and MSU come by a combined 3 points.
What also interests me is that whoever wins -- us or Indiana -- will likely determine POY awards for either Burke or Olidapo.
What also matters a lot is who palys which teams only once:
JUST PLAY AT HOME | JUST PLAY ON ROAD | |
ILLINOIS | IND & PSU | IOWA & MSU |
INDIANA | NEB & WISC | ILL & NW |
IOWA | ILL & MSU | MICH & OSU |
MICHIGAN | IOWA & NEB | MINN & WISC |
MICHIGAN ST | ILL & NW | IOWA & PSU |
MINNESOTA | MICH & PSU | OSU & PURD |
NEBRASKA | NW & PURD | IND & MICH |
NORTHWESTERN | IND & WISC | MSU & NEB |
OHIO ST | IOWA & MINN | PSU & PURD |
PENN ST | MSU & OSU | ILL & MINN |
PURDUE | MINN & OSU | NEB & WISC |
WISCONSIN | MICH & PURD | IND & NW |
Obviously it is nice to only play top teams once- but what is also key is whether you play top teams at home or on the road if you only play them once. Essentially for just home games you want tough opponents (meaning you played them only once and at home) and for just road you want weak opponents (so you still have a good chance to win even though you get an uneven split with them).
For example, we played Wisconsin only once- but it was on the road- so that is a huge advantage for Wisconsin- had that been changed the whole title race could be different obviously.
TITLE CONTENDERS:
Indiana didn't get a chance to avenge its loss to Illinois but didn't have to play inWisconsin- a tough place to play.
Michigan didn't play Iowa and Nebraska on the road- would have been nice to skip on tougher teams. We did not play Minnesota or Wisconsin at home- both solid teams (one hurt us one did not).
Michigan State didn't have to travel to Illinois or Northwestern- like Michigan two weaker teams. MSU also got lucky having road games without homes against Iowa and Penn State- also weaker teams. MSU did have to play all tough teams twice.
OSU hosted Iowa and Minnesota without road games- also two weaker teams. They got luck playing PSU and Purdue only on the road however.
Wisconsin had it pretty good- skipping out on playing us and Purdue on the road- and playing road games against Indiana without being at home (which in liekly would have been a loss anyway) and NW.
So which top teams avoided other top teams?
Indiana skipped WISC on the road
Michigan skipped WISC at home
MSU skipped nobody
OSU skipped nobody
WISC skipped MICH on the road and Indiana at home
OVERALL:
WISC had the best schedule all things considered, MSU and OSU had the toughest, with MICH being slightly tougher than Indiana- as far as the schedule against top-5 teasm goes.
However, if we beat Indiana the co-champs will have 5-losses, meaning every team blew some serious chances. Yes half-court at Wisconsin blows, but all the other teams can make very similar arguements. MSU and OSU played all the top teams twice, Indiana blew it against Illinois in not worse of fashion than us against Wisconsin (yes home vs. road makes a big difference though). Well... I guess Wisconsin has very little to complain about... but let's hope MSU beats them at home tonight- I'd rather split the title with MSU than Wisconsin this year.
Indiana blew it against Illinois in not worse of fashion than us against Wisconsin (yes home vs. road makes a big difference though).Huh? Both their loss to Illinois and ours to Wisconsin were on the road.
Yep stupid mistake- it was on the road...
My main point was every team has "choked" to some degree- or can argue they should be better than 5-losses. Our fan base is quick to say- stupid PSU game, or stupid half-court shot, hell we should be the champs- but other teams have similar gripes in my opinion
In a way, yes, but OTOH, playing U-M, OSU and/or IU only once is a break overall. They probably weren't going to be favored even at home against those teams.
Minnesota truly is the most Amakeresque team in the league. 7-2 at home and 1-7 on the road? Sounds familiar.
I've noticed that Indiana seems very comfortable on the road. We will have to change that somehow.
Early in the B1G season, I was surprised to see the home teams right at .500. That was late January, 40-50 games into the schedule (you know, when Michigan was 3-1 on the road). Since then home teams have been tearing it up.