Homefield advantage can be described and compared mathematically by the positive difference between the teams win percentage at home and at away games.
For example, from 2012 to 2022, the Cowboys won 60.5% of their home games and 55.6% of their away games, a difference of 4.9%,
You can then create a ranking of homefield advantage by comparing their differences among teams. To be clear, it doesn’t matter if their overall record is high or low, we are comparing the degree of difference between how much they win at home and how much they win in away games. In that sense, we would say that the team with the largest difference between winning percentage at home and away would represent the best home field advantage.
Arizona is an interesting case since their winning percentage at home is smaller than their winning percentage at away games. Their difference is -1.3, the only team with a negative difference. Theoretically, if you had to play in an away game then Arizona is the team you want to play
Here is the ranking based on the last ten seasons combined:
1 GNB 24.1%
2 MIN 23.6%
3 CLE 20.3%
4 MIA 19.8%
5 CIN 19.0%
6 BAL 18.5%
7 DEN 18.5%
8 JAX 16.0%
9 PIT 15.0%
10 NYJ 14.8%
11 BUF 14.2%
12 NWE 13.6%
13 CAR 11.8%
14 LVR 11.1%
15 IND 10.5%
16 DET 10.2%
17 HOU 9.2%
18 NYG 9.2%
19 PHI 8.2%
20 SEA 7.9%
21 LAR 7.4%
22 KAN 6.2%
23 NOR 6.2%
24 LAC 6.2%
25 WAS 5.3%
26 TEN 4.9%
27 DAL 4.9%
28 TAM 4.9%
29 SFO 3.7%
30 ATL 3.7%
31 CHI 2.5%
32 ARI -1.3%
If you have to play the Packers then you should really prefer to host them.
We knew the Cowboys didn’t have much of a homefield advantage, right? Actually that is changing. The last time I took this 10 year measurement was five years ago and they were 2nd to last at the time, another interesting case. The winning percentages for home games and away games were equal. Their homefield advantage percentage was zero.
