The matchup between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs marks the first Super Bowl in which a team is playing on its own home field
Will that matter? Not so much, said Konstantinos Pelechrinis, an associate professor at Pitt’s School of Computing and Information (SCI) and head of the Network Data Science Lab. His data analytics includes modeling of football outcomes.
“In Tampa, as is the case with any final regardless of location, there will be fans of both teams. So, I don’t really expect this to be a factor,” he said.
Typically, home-field advantage in the NFL is estimated at about 3 points for the home team, but there has been a declining trend in recent years. Since 2005 the home field advantage has averaged 2.2 points, and is on the decrease. “Last year the home field advantage was fairly small,” he said. “This year the home field advantage is, for all statistical purposes, zero as well.”