Cold Weather Teams in the National Football League and Home-Field Advantage

Abstract

The National Football League (NFL) has long had this idea of home-field advantage when teams play at home where they win more of their games. However, home games entail many things such as home fan attendance and weather. In considering the mean winning percentage of home games played during the winter months of December, January, and February by Cold Weather Teams, and the mean winning percentage of all home games played and all December, January, and February home games played, the null hypothesis would be that there is no difference in the means. By rejecting the null hypothesis, it would lead to the conclusion that cold weather plays a factor in determining NFL games. This hypothesis testing is important because if teams in “colder weather climates” gain a significant advantage during the colder months of December, January, and February, the impacts of playing in an open grass stadium during these months will have a greater impact on the playoffs and draft, which is decided based on final NFL standings. The finding is that Cold Weather Teams have a significant advantage when compared to the other data found, which suggests that cold weather tends to impact NFL games more than expected.

Keywords

• NFL Home-Field Advantage
• Hypothesis Testing
• Paired Differences Test
• Cold Weather Teams

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