Abstract

Though the home court advantage in college basketball is universally recognized, it is not completely understood. Researchers have put forth many theories to explain the higher probability of victory for the home team, which fit into four basic categories: scheduling consideration, court familiarity, travel time, and crowd contribution. Statistical Methods were employed to test the validity of these theories and the following variables were analyzed: probability of victory during preconference and conference play; margin of victory for the home team for short, medium, and long road trips for visitors; shooting percentage of the home team and shooting percentage of the visiting team; and the difference between fouls, blocks, steals, etc. for the home team and the visiting team. These findings seem to indicate that easy preconference scheduling is inflating perception of the home court advantage. Also, travel considerations no longer adversely affect the visiting team. Furthermore, the home team doesn’t shoot significantly better long distance shots at their home court. Finally, the crowd does have a measurable effect on the performance of the home team, perhaps by spurring players to be more aggressive defenders or by influencing the referees.