Breaking down the discussion, the only real argument that anyone can have against our use of cowbells is that it gives us a direct competitive advantage during a game. I think it’s a compelling argument and one that I’d probably use if God had smote me and made me a fan of one of those other schools. I think that Stricklin and Keenan need to thoughtfully rebut this argument if we have any chance of putting this issue to bed once and for all.
Thankfully, I think that we can objectively and statistically PROVE that the bells do NOT give us a competitive advantage. Here’s the data:
Since 1935, State has won 69 and lost 100 home games against the current members of the SEC (I use 1935 b/c mstateathletics.com says cowbells came into popular use in the late 30’s and I figured 1935 was a good enough starting point. I also use only games against current members of the SEC because I’m too lazy to dissect the statistics any further). That means we win slightly less than 41% of our home SEC games. This should, on its face prove that we have NO competitive advantage. BUT, to further prove the point I looked at our road games against SEC teams in the same time frame, and our win percentage on the road was roughly 12% less.
Now, you’d expect that ALL teams would win more home games over time than road games. The question is , ‘is our 12% differential between home winning percentage and road winning percentage in SEC games significantly different from the other SEC teams during the same time frame?’ Well, I had only enough time to look up the same SEC win/loss differential for Mississippi over that same time frame and guess what – they won 12% more games at home than on the road. The differential is almost identical (within tenths of a percent) and would point to the fact that the numbers simply don’t back up the idea that we have a competitive advantage because we ring cowbells at home games.
Now, I’m too lazy to go through and do this for the other 10 SEC teams, but my guess (and hope) is that if you looked it up for the same time frame in SEC games the home/road winning percentage differential would be about the same (if not higher).
Do you agree that this is a compelling argument and one we should present to the SEC? Does anyone care to find out if this holds true when given a larger sample size?
Note: I used http://football.stassen.com/records/ to look up the data. I excluded neutral site games because there’s no way to tell which ones were ‘our’ neutral sites (i.e., Jackson) vs. ‘their’ neutral sites (i.e., Jacksonville, FL).
Thankfully, I think that we can objectively and statistically PROVE that the bells do NOT give us a competitive advantage. Here’s the data:
Since 1935, State has won 69 and lost 100 home games against the current members of the SEC (I use 1935 b/c mstateathletics.com says cowbells came into popular use in the late 30’s and I figured 1935 was a good enough starting point. I also use only games against current members of the SEC because I’m too lazy to dissect the statistics any further). That means we win slightly less than 41% of our home SEC games. This should, on its face prove that we have NO competitive advantage. BUT, to further prove the point I looked at our road games against SEC teams in the same time frame, and our win percentage on the road was roughly 12% less.
Now, you’d expect that ALL teams would win more home games over time than road games. The question is , ‘is our 12% differential between home winning percentage and road winning percentage in SEC games significantly different from the other SEC teams during the same time frame?’ Well, I had only enough time to look up the same SEC win/loss differential for Mississippi over that same time frame and guess what – they won 12% more games at home than on the road. The differential is almost identical (within tenths of a percent) and would point to the fact that the numbers simply don’t back up the idea that we have a competitive advantage because we ring cowbells at home games.
Now, I’m too lazy to go through and do this for the other 10 SEC teams, but my guess (and hope) is that if you looked it up for the same time frame in SEC games the home/road winning percentage differential would be about the same (if not higher).
Do you agree that this is a compelling argument and one we should present to the SEC? Does anyone care to find out if this holds true when given a larger sample size?
Note: I used http://football.stassen.com/records/ to look up the data. I excluded neutral site games because there’s no way to tell which ones were ‘our’ neutral sites (i.e., Jackson) vs. ‘their’ neutral sites (i.e., Jacksonville, FL).