All of us are familiar with the concept of home field advantage. We can trace the advantage to many factors. A home audience provides support; a home stadium or arena offers a familiar playing surface and sight lines; the refs are unconsciously (or consciously) influenced by home fan reactions.
Some of the home field advantage factors are biological. Players suffer physical fatigue from travel; they sleep less well and eat less well on the road; indeed, their circadian rhythms are disrupted. The greater the number of changes in time zones the greater the disruptions.
The PAC 12 was a great time zone conference with nine teams in the Pacific zone and four in the Mountain zone. Air travel was relatively easy and always non-stop. Home and away scheduling for many sports equalized travel effects. The ACC is a nightmare for several sports, especially BB and VB, whether your perspective is environmental, financial, or physical.
Interestingly, some studies show travel from east to west is more disruptive physically, but the travel always is disruptive whenever one crosses time zones. The effect is more pronounced for day games than night games. Many teams try to pretend they have not changed time zones, still, their bodies' internal clocks are not easily fooled.
Thus, human factors research supports the proposition that for sports teams their distant travel -- to use a scientific term -- sucks. You may have noticed how the Stanford WBB yesterday in Dalles at SMU had so many shot near misses during the first quarter but became more acclimated in the second quarter.
In a theoretical universe, the Stanford WVB team beat Miami and (maybe) Louisville and the WBB team beat LSU and SMU if we adjust the final scores for travel.
In this universe, of course, we can't.
Some of the home field advantage factors are biological. Players suffer physical fatigue from travel; they sleep less well and eat less well on the road; indeed, their circadian rhythms are disrupted. The greater the number of changes in time zones the greater the disruptions.
The PAC 12 was a great time zone conference with nine teams in the Pacific zone and four in the Mountain zone. Air travel was relatively easy and always non-stop. Home and away scheduling for many sports equalized travel effects. The ACC is a nightmare for several sports, especially BB and VB, whether your perspective is environmental, financial, or physical.
Interestingly, some studies show travel from east to west is more disruptive physically, but the travel always is disruptive whenever one crosses time zones. The effect is more pronounced for day games than night games. Many teams try to pretend they have not changed time zones, still, their bodies' internal clocks are not easily fooled.
Thus, human factors research supports the proposition that for sports teams their distant travel -- to use a scientific term -- sucks. You may have noticed how the Stanford WBB yesterday in Dalles at SMU had so many shot near misses during the first quarter but became more acclimated in the second quarter.
In a theoretical universe, the Stanford WVB team beat Miami and (maybe) Louisville and the WBB team beat LSU and SMU if we adjust the final scores for travel.
In this universe, of course, we can't.
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