Why can’t Michigan Stadium create a home field advantage?
Watching the intro of Penn St about to walk out onto the field and seeing the atmosphere before kick off and early and late in the game I was wondering have we ever had an atmosphere like that?
The only time I could think of was Under the Lights I. Penn St at night consistently has had a 12th man advantage in these games. They beat OSU in 16 and almost in 18 and now beaten us back to back.
What can be done to where we at Michigan Stadium have this type of 12th man advantage in big games?
October 19th, 2019 at 11:47 PM ^
Were you there for the Iowa game?
If not, shut up.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:51 PM ^
Yes. Section 4 Row 31 Seat 17. Come say hi next Saturday. Had those seats for 9 years now before that spent 5 years in the student section.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:54 PM ^
You haven't been to enough games then.. lol 9 years with season tickets..
October 20th, 2019 at 12:02 AM ^
Maybe pay attention next time?
October 20th, 2019 at 12:28 AM ^
The older woman standing next to me for the Iowa game was covering her ears and screaming at the same time.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:48 PM ^
Sigh.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:48 PM ^
Who says it doesn't? The last two times PSU came here, we beat them 49-10 and 42-7. Likewise Wisconsin lost 38-13.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:05 AM ^
Last year against penn state was the best atmosphere I’ve been to at the big house. Deaf and hoarse after.
That was an advantage.
October 20th, 2019 at 2:17 PM ^
Wisconsin at night was electric too.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:52 PM ^
They're 6-6 now in these games. It's not much of an advantage.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:17 AM ^
To be fair a lot of those white out games are against better teams than them. .500 is probably a testament to the atmosphere.
The big house will be loudness for ND. If we start off well it’s gonna be very hard to play for ND.
October 20th, 2019 at 2:21 PM ^
The losses are against Ohio State mostly, who absolutely dominated the Big Ten since the first PSU white out.
But they played Ohio State very close in most of them, much better than their record otherwise would indicate. It gave them a chance.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:53 PM ^
A retractable dome. It’s the shape of the stadium it can’t get as loud. Could do a maize out I suppose
October 19th, 2019 at 11:55 PM ^
It's mostly made up. There's no real correlation between "home intensity" and record. It looks cool on TV but penn state lost at home twice last year including their white out. It's to make fans feel involved and that they make a difference but the truth is most teams just play bad on the road in general, not because one crowd is more "Intimidating" than another
October 20th, 2019 at 12:08 AM ^
The players say it is loud but the away routine plays a bigger role. I think Uche said he can’t get a hot soak prior to the game. If that’s what helps him relax and focus cool I guess. I’m not sure what to make of this. I’ll stop talking now.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:11 AM ^
That's the real difference, is change in routine when you're on the road. You play 7-8 home games a year and have all your practices at home. When you play road games it's just weird because it's a new environment that you haven't practiced in before
October 20th, 2019 at 1:19 AM ^
The crowd absolutely plays a factor. If the game was played tonight in an empty stadium we probably win.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:34 AM ^
What an interesting theory.
And baseless.
October 20th, 2019 at 2:10 AM ^
Is there any evidence to that theory? I watched Michigan play better tonight than any game at home this year, save Ruggers
October 19th, 2019 at 11:57 PM ^
Millennials.
October 19th, 2019 at 11:59 PM ^
Michigan Stadium used to be a major home field advantage. I attended for many of the games in the Lloyd years - saw it first hand.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:03 AM ^
Wait, are you saying that we don't have a homefield advantage now, under Harbaugh? He's like 29-4 at home. Just take a look at the PSU and Wisconsin series to see how we play at home vs. on the road.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:54 AM ^
The OP implied we had none (and never really did) - I was replying to him.
In answer to you, I would say our home advantage is still there but has diminished over the past 20 years or so. (Also, you really should excise the easy wins from that 29-4 record to get a truer account.)
Hard to precisely deconvolute the environment effects from the quality of the team through those years. Some of it is more rival fans in the stands, some is the loss of the home dominance perception (App St really hurt that), some of it is restriction on the crowd (banning of pole flags and coolers, etc.), some just poor attendence, etc.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:20 AM ^
Michigan stadium has been much louder since the skyboxes went in. The difference is clear. No idea how you think it’s less than before.
October 20th, 2019 at 7:39 AM ^
Never said anything about actual noise level (ie dB measured at field level) - that is your interpretation.
However, when comparing crowds from recent seasons to those if the Lloyd years, I have noticed these differences.
October 20th, 2019 at 7:42 AM ^
In what ways are you noticing these differences ? You say I interpreted wrong, yet don’t bother explaining the difference ?
October 20th, 2019 at 5:30 PM ^
As I touched in my earlier post, some of the factors are easy to see. For instance, look at the crowd composition for big games then and now (looking at colors, for example). Much more of the visiting colors in recent (last 10 or so) years than during Lloyd's days. Another aspect is the limitations set on the fans - they can no longer bring in all the equipment and regalia (flag poles, coolers, outside beverages, free programs, etc) - partly due to enhanced security after 9/11 and partly so they can be further gouged by the in stadium vendors. As others here have pointed out for years, there is a trend moving away from long established seat holders staying together - some from people selling tickets on secondary market and others just choosing to buy tickets for only the interesting games of choice instead of season tickets - which is also related to the dramatic increase in price over the last few decades.
Those are only a few trends I have observed being in the stands. I also alluded to how others view the intimidation factor of being in the Big House. One way to observe this is how the broadcasters portray the matchup/environment. I recall in the early 2000s announcers would talk about how hard it would be our opponents (PSU, OSU, Iowa, and others) to come here and play well. After 2007 and the RR/Hoke years that mystique has faded, if not disappeared - modern parity in college football has shown that anyone can beat anyone else, anytime and anywhere. Rival fans are afraid for their team to play here and the fans themselves are afraid to come here (which they shouldn't be - we want people to acknowledge how great A2 is as well as our campus and stadium, but contrast this to the stories relayed here about our fans getting harassed and abused going to Columbus and East Lansing).
As I said, it is hard to precisely pinpoint the degree of home field advantage degradation (how can it accurately be quantified anyway?), let alone assigning causality. However, I am claiming that it has happened noticeably just within the term of my fandom alone, which is not nearly as old as others here.
October 20th, 2019 at 8:59 AM ^
I've also seen Lloyd piss away many games at home he shouldn't have.
October 20th, 2019 at 5:56 PM ^
Can't be that many - he didn't lose that many home games overall, let alone ones that he "pissed away". His bigger programs were road games and bowl games (surprising to hear, I'm sure).
October 20th, 2019 at 12:01 AM ^
We were up 42-0 on PSU last year in The Big House, fuck off.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:10 AM ^
I put my seat number out in the open. How bout you do that tough guy routine next weekend and tell me to fuck off. Otherwise come by and say Go Blue and recognize I was just asking a question.
October 20th, 2019 at 1:35 AM ^
No one cares where you sit. No one is going to show up to call you out. Your take is outlandishly hot, seat number or not.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:01 AM ^
If they made it a priority, they could make the atmosphere better. Warde Manuel is so cheap that he can't handle out pom poms for the OSU game.
October 20th, 2019 at 3:47 AM ^
Too many people don't know how to handle pom poms (keeping them low and not blocking my GD view). Also, the players DGAF. Dumb idea.
October 20th, 2019 at 2:26 PM ^
The pom poms at UTL1 were awesome. Like a giant pulsating maize amoeba.
October 20th, 2019 at 7:05 AM ^
The pom poms isn’t a Warde Manuel issue. Is a university issue, specifically a Sustainability/environmental issue. The university wanted and got the big house to be zero waste, even though it represents a ridiculously small amount of the waste generate at the university. But hey, sounds neat right?
October 20th, 2019 at 2:28 PM ^
We are just so virtuous. The NCAA should give us a free win every year over those other toxic programs.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:01 AM ^
there are apparently acoutistic limits to what we can do.
If we could only do something about people selling tickets for big games. And why wouldn't OSU fans buy those tickets, we have a reputation for being so nice.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:03 AM ^
Michigan could easily make an annual night game a maize out. You just need pom poms.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:14 AM ^
The university has said they're committed to limiting waste and that pom poms make a ton of it because the little plastic parts fall off. That's why they've been replaced by towels. But when you see every other team in the country with pom poms and Nebraska literally release tens of thousands of rubber and helium balloons into the environment every week, it kinda feels like our conservation efforts are for naught
October 20th, 2019 at 1:23 AM ^
If true that’s very dumb. We could just set up recycle bins at the exits and encourage people to recycle them on the way out.
October 20th, 2019 at 2:32 PM ^
Or make them out of something that composts / decomposes easily.
I have old maize and blue pom poms that were given out in the 80s or 90s that were made out of essentially tissue paper. Unless deliberately preserved, they turn to dust pretty quickly.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:09 AM ^
Aren't we like 6-1 in home night games? I don't think we win next week but to say we don't have a home field advantage isn't true.
I certainly wish they would stop being cheap and not handing out enough towels or pom poms for every person though.
October 20th, 2019 at 12:11 AM ^
It is Michigan
Classy. Too good for that schlock.
Not interested in having rivals, night games or anything fun and crazy.
#MichiganDifference
#MichiganArrogance
October 20th, 2019 at 12:22 AM ^
PSU night games in the giant erector set is one of the best CFB venues period.
(PSU basketball has one of the worst).
October 20th, 2019 at 2:34 PM ^
And yet it's the same fans. Hmmm . . .
October 20th, 2019 at 12:29 AM ^
I'm pretty sure we haven't lost since 2017 at the Big House... And c'mon, as if the White Out did much. We outplayed them on both sides of the ball.
October 20th, 2019 at 7:42 AM ^
It had an effect - maybe more on the refs than on our team, but still an effect.
October 20th, 2019 at 9:38 AM ^
I think loud home crowds do have some impact on refs even if subconsciously.
October 20th, 2019 at 2:15 PM ^
They do.
SI did a very comprehensive analysis a number of years back to determine what caused home field advantage, which is a real thing.
They analyzed numerous factors and weighed their effects across multiple diverse sports over large spans of history.
The conclusion: Referee excitement / intimidation. The Refs are human, and the environment absolutely impacts them.
Shit, just look at the charges that Duke gets called in their favor at Cameron. The Ref calling 5 of them in a Cameron game probably only calls 2 or 3 of them the entire rest of the season.