Home Court Advantage

[kjjson]

Is there a sport where Home Court Advantage is more evident than in College Basketball? As I thought about BYU's losses this year, I started thinking about where it is we lost. At New Mexico, at Utah State, and at UNLV seem to be 3 tough places to win. This year, those three teams are a combined 37-4 on their home courts. I got looking at some other schools and was amazed at some of the numbers:

Conneticut: 14-9 overall, 14-2 at home.
Texas: 19-4 overall, 12-1 at home.
Oklahoma 13-9 overall, 11-0 at home.
Oklahoma State 16-7 overall, 12-1 at home.

I know this is just a small sample, but it sure seems that home court plays a very real role in college basketball. All the more reason that I hate having the conference tournament in Vegas.

[CannonCougar85]

Is there a sport where Home Court Advantage is more evident than in College Basketball? As I thought about BYU's losses this year, I started thinking about where it is we lost. At New Mexico, at Utah State, and at UNLV seem to be 3 tough places to win. This year, those three teams are a combined 37-4 on their home courts. I got looking at some other schools and was amazed at some of the numbers:

Conneticut: 14-9 overall, 14-2 at home.
Texas: 19-4 overall, 12-1 at home.
Oklahoma 13-9 overall, 11-0 at home.
Oklahoma State 16-7 overall, 12-1 at home.

I know this is just a small sample, but it sure seems that home court plays a very real role in college basketball. All the more reason that I hate having the conference tournament in Vegas.

I've been to the tourney in Vegas a few times and after 2007 I swore I'd never go back as long as it's played in Vegas. It is a terrible atmosphere for BYU fans and it is a complete home court advantage for UNLV. The only games it ever sells out during the whole tournament is UNLV games and it gets really loud in favor of UNLV.

When it was played it Denver it was fair as far as home court advantage goes but it never got close to selling out which is important as well.

So with this in mind I have come up with a solution:
Hold the tournament at Energy Solutions Arena. Salt Lake City can house all the fans and players from the conference easily, it held the Olympics for crying out loud.
ESA's close proximity to both BYU and Utah automatically makes it more of a neutral court than Vegas because extra tickets are likely to be distributed relatively even between the 2 fanbases. BYU fans in attendance will cheer against Utah and Utah fans in attendance will cheer against BYU, thus eliminating the home court feel for either school.

[blue42]

So with this in mind I have come up with a solution:
Hold the tournament at Energy Solutions Arena. Salt Lake City can house all the fans and players from the conference easily, it held the Olympics for crying out loud.
ESA's close proximity to both BYU and Utah automatically makes it more of a neutral court than Vegas because extra tickets are likely to be distributed relatively even between the 2 fanbases. BYU fans in attendance will cheer against Utah and Utah fans in attendance will cheer against BYU, thus eliminating the home court feel for either school.

Even though I think most of us here agree that having the tourny at UNLV is a huge homecourt for UNLV, but I wouldn't mind so much having it at a neutral court in Vegas other than at the Thomas and Mack center. Don't hold your breath about it coming to Salt Lake because nobody wants to come to Salt Lake and most people want to go to Vegas, (unless you are Obama), besides that if it was in Salt Lake you wouldn't have any cousin Eddies loaning you money to play "guess your weight"!

[CannonCougar85]

So with this in mind I have come up with a solution:
Hold the tournament at Energy Solutions Arena. Salt Lake City can house all the fans and players from the conference easily, it held the Olympics for crying out loud.
ESA's close proximity to both BYU and Utah automatically makes it more of a neutral court than Vegas because extra tickets are likely to be distributed relatively even between the 2 fanbases. BYU fans in attendance will cheer against Utah and Utah fans in attendance will cheer against BYU, thus eliminating the home court feel for either school.

Even though I think most of us here agree that having the tourny at UNLV is a huge homecourt for UNLV, but I wouldn't mind so much having it at a neutral court in Vegas other than at the Thomas and Mack center. Don't hold your breath about it coming to Salt Lake because nobody wants to come to Salt Lake and most people want to go to Vegas, (unless you are Obama), besides that if it was in Salt Lake you wouldn't have any cousin Eddies loaning you money to play "guess your weight"!

I've heard that argument and I will agree that most people would rather go to Vegas then the beautiful brown of Salt Lake in March, I mean who wouldn't'? You can go on the dam tour and take all the dam pictures you want. But with the BYU and Utah fanbases in such close proximity to ESA I'm not so sure that there wouldn't be just as many tickets sold for SLC as Thomas and Mack. There wouldn't be as many UNM, SDSU, and UNLV, fans but wouldn't the extra amount of BYU and Utah fans make up the difference? (I only mention UNM, SDSU, and UNLV because in my experience at the tournament the schools that suck, Wyo, TCU, and CSU do not travel well at all anyway, even to Vegas)

[Schmoe]

Rotate it between Vegas, Denver, and So Cal.

[Iceman]

I think they ought to bag the tournament altogether. The only teams that stand anything to gain are those that didn't get what they wanted out of the regular season, thereby diminishing the importance of the regular season resume'. How many times does the regular season champion have to settle for a lower seed in the NCAA (if not dropping out) because of an unfortunate slip in this mess, joke, (fill in the blank).

Its good for UNLV- let them win out during the season like everyone else.

[BroncoBot]

I think they ought to bag the tournament altogether. The only teams that stand anything to gain are those that didn't get what they wanted out of the regular season, thereby diminishing the importance of the regular season resume'. How many times does the regular season champion have to settle for a lower seed in the NCAA (if not dropping out) because of an unfortunate slip in this mess, joke, (fill in the blank).

Its good for UNLV- let them win out during the season like everyone else.

The MWC regular season champ has always received a bid to the tourney. Although I know what you are saying. Many times the champ has lost style points because of the MWC tourney.

[Iceman]

I think they ought to bag the tournament altogether. The only teams that stand anything to gain are those that didn't get what they wanted out of the regular season, thereby diminishing the importance of the regular season resume'. How many times does the regular season champion have to settle for a lower seed in the NCAA (if not dropping out) because of an unfortunate slip in this mess, joke, (fill in the blank).

Its good for UNLV- let them win out during the season like everyone else.

The MWC regular season champ has always received a bid to the tourney. Although I know what you are saying. Many times the champ has lost style points because of the MWC tourney.

You're right, dropping out is an illogical statement in that it hasn't happened, but with the bias we have seen, I thought it a possibility in a year when the conference has beaten up on each other, and the "brains" are not impressed with the overall conference strength. I guess it wouldn't be realistic to expect that, because winning the conference regular season, at this point still carries enough weight, and the MWC has some measure of respect over several smaller conferences.

[Mars]

Rotate it between Vegas, Denver, and So Cal.

Denver sucks hardcore. Rotate it between Vegas (neutral court), ESA in SLC, and So Cal (neutral court).