Home field advantage

[Chris]

Does anyone give the home team any kind of advantage,or just play the game normally. I’m thinking of using one of these:

1) giving the home team a 3 point lead to start     

2) giving them the second half kick off and possession at the opponents 25      

3) two attempts at field goals 

4) two attempts at passes longer than 30 yards.

Any thoughts on this or any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks coaches 

 

 

 

 

[Coach Shawn]

In my solitaire league the home team automatically wins the coin toss to start the game and thus they gain the usual choices.

I toyed with many of the ideas you listed but decided to just go with auto winning the coin toss.

some ideas not on your list:

•home team gets an extra pivot.
•home team gets extra timeouts.

Edited January 22, 2023 by Coach Shawn

[nefgm.org]

No. I just play the game normally.  

[RickLM30]

Nope, just play the game normally and let the chips fall where they may.  If the home team scores, I might jump up and down and cheer a little louder! 😆

[Long island EFL]

Shawn great question! In our league we always give home field advantage according to the NFL schedule and the home team. The home team gets the ball first. We only play 30 minute regular season games, with 40 second set-ups in a seven game season for 32 teams, with two half's of electric football. We switch sides at the half and it works great with the clock. It's the post season where the games are 60-minutes.

We are finding that when you build a highly competitive league, it doesn't give the great defenses in your league a great disadvantage. This season more than ever, the Long Island Electric Football League through the Draft has changed the level of competition in the game and the coaches understand how to prepare. We would imagine that in a solitaire league as long as the power of the league is built right, that home field advantage may have less of an impact to the visiting team. Thanks for sharing the question!

[zak99b5]

In our league, each team has its own actual field, so there's a natural home field advantage in sense that you get to know the quirks of your own board much better.

Last season the breakdown was:

Bills (me) early 600 Sports Classic 

NY Giants Blue late 660

NY Giants White Ultimate (team folded 2/3 of the way in)

Albany Pop Warner Titans 610 Miggle Super Bowl

Lions 610 AFC field

Broncos '67 620

[TOEPRO Football Kit]

I don’t know what your scrimmage procedures are but in TOEPRO Football a great way is removing one audible from the visiting team’s offense simulating home crowd noise. 
Just a solitaire thought. 

[Bob Davis]

A very thought provoking discussion. I had a similar idea to TOEPRO's crowd simulation idea. How about a five yard false start penalty against the visiting team at a point in the game of the home team's chosing? I'm considering this for my league thanks to this discussion! 

[Curt]

Here's a late,late thought, sorry. I have more than enough bases to load 3 full games. I try to get all the bases to run as far and as straight as possible. I have the Houston Oilers with the current 32 NFL teams for a total of 33 teams making for 11 divisions of 3 teams. I load the first 3 games and after the first game, take those bases, shuffle them and load game 4 in no particular base assignment. They are shuffled like that every third game and at the end of each regular season round. While this eliminates as much bias as possible, I do allow tweaking for time-outs. I also shuffle them for each round in my 12 team, tiered playoff structure. But here is my suggestion for you. It depends on how many bases you have. Let's say for example you have 11 bases that can run over 20 yards straight and 11 that only go 10 yards. You can give your home team a larger amount of bases that run longer than your visitors for somewhat of an advantage but you really have to find the right solution for yourself so I am probably not much help here, sorry. Blessings anyway and good luck, Curt

[Curt]

And here is another late thought as I am playing a game right now. Normally, and even with my ultimate sized game board, I do not round up half yards. So, let's say a team has a first down on their own 40 and needs to get to midfield for the first down. For me if either team only makes it to the 49 and a half, they face a second and 1 from their 49 yard line. Now to foster home field advantage, you can round up half yards for your home team and your visitors will just be out of luck. Just another thought that comes to mind when it might have served better had it been thought of sooner. Sorry. Blessings to all, Curt

[zak99b5]

We don't round up yards either for making the line to gain. Nor the end zone. After downs 1-3 we put the ball on the closest yardline though. 

[Curt]

Good morning ladies and gentle-dudes. Sick of me yet? A couple more really late-night thoughts. Official NFL and EFL rules allow a touchdown to be awarded if a ball carrier breaks the plane of the goal line. I require a ball carrier to break the plane of the end zone. Official NFL and EFL rules can be applied to just the home team here and your visitors can follow "my" rule for touchdowns [safeties, and first downs too]to elicit another slight home field advantage. Here is another suggestion. I consider myself pro-offense. If there is a "fuzzy" play I cannot prove one way or another, I default to a call that benefits the offense. Put a different way, my offense takes all pushes. So let's say an onside kick is made and players need to run for the ball. First one to it is the ball carrier and may continue until tackled, out of bounds or scores a touchdown. But let's further say opposing players reach the ball at the same time. For me, whoever would be offense [receiving team] gets the ball at that spot. For yet another little bit of home-field advantage, your home team would be awarded the ball. Does that make sense? I'm sorry I'm so slow in these things but thank you all so very much for being patient with me these past years. Blessings, Curt

[Coach Shawn]

On 3/6/2023 at 7:47 AM, Curt said:

But let's further say opposing players reach the ball at the same time. For me, whoever would be offense [receiving team] gets the ball at that spot. For yet another little bit of home-field advantage, your home team would be awarded the ball. Does that make sense? I'm sorry I'm so slow in these things but thank you all so very much for being patient with me these past years. Blessings, Curt

You have brought up some interesting takes on how “home advantage” can be simulated.

I always enjoy hearing new ideas for electric football and often incorporate ideas into my own rules.

You think “out of the box” and I hope you continue to share your thoughts.

Your idea to give the home team the benefit of the doubt on those infuriating, close, hard to call plays is very intriguing.

[zak99b5]

I also like the home team getting benefit of the doubt--great idea.

[Curt]

Wow, thanks guys. I learn so much from all of you guys myself. I too have been influenced on how to run my league by other commentors. What a great community the EF world is. Ya'll are the greatest! 🙂

[Curt]

It's close to 3:00 a.m. here in the Dallas, Texas area and I woke up with this thought based on the quotes below regarding 2-point conversions:

"I think I will have to back up the 2 point conversion next season.  It was too easy to get it from the 2 yard line".

"A lot of coaches, including myself, do this from the 5 yard line."

 

Here's yet another late thought regarding 2-point conversions. I really don't pay attention to my success rate and mine are made from the 2-yard line. But, if it really is easier from the 2-yard line than from the 5-yard line, you might consider this. To further promote home field advantage, your home team can attempt their 2-point conversions from the 2-yard line and your visiting team would have to attempt theirs from the 5-yard line. Does that make sense? I hope I'm not meddling too much. Good luck with your solitaire leagues. Blessings to all [and good night 🙂], Curt

[Greg F]

Since I only used a limited number of bases last year, I gave the home team first picks on the best bases.  

[Curt]

Sorry ya'll, here's another late, late, late thought that occurred to me while playing [as that is when most thoughts present themselves. Are you sick of me now? :)]. I allow tackles from any angle. Sometime a ball carrier gets hit really quickly and the momentum gains him an extra yard before he comes to a complete stop. I've always likened that to the extra effort I've seen NFL players give each time they carry the ball. To add yet another slight advantage to the home team. Should that happen, the home team would be given that extra yardage whereas the visiting team would have the ball spotted at the point of contact. Does that make sense? Blessings, Curt.

[nefgm.org]

AKA 'the electric slide". It is a common practice in electric football to give the ball carrier the yardage gained after the switch is turned off. I play a form of "forward progress" where the ball carrier is not down until his forward progress has been stopped. If you wanted to give the home team an advantage, then have the home team use forward progress and the visiting team play by any touch tackling. 

[Curt]

Ok, here I am in the middle of yet another game. I had this thought about one of my much earlier boards. I submit this one on the previous comment "You think “out of the box” and I hope you continue to share your thoughts." One of my earlier boards was much smaller than my Ultimate board. The vibration control was in the corner of one of the endzones. While I do not have this issue with my Ultimate board, I noticed that closer to the vibration control, the field buzzed a little stronger and the players moved a little faster. Now this would take some serious experimentation to foster a "reasonable" home field advantage. Once the desirable vibration level is found, the better of the vibration levels could be used for the home team when they are on offense and a slightly lesser vibration level could be used for the visiting team when they are on offense. Does that make sense? Honestly, I think this has been my favorite topic of all since it is always on my ever-so-slowly moving mind. You all are so incredibly fabulous for being so patient with me. Thank you very much and the best of blessings to all of you, Curt. 🙂 

[zak99b5]

A lot of good ideas in this thread. 
 

Not sure I’d appreciate being the visiting team if ALL of them were implemented though!

Re: field speed idea—how about that reflecting “momentum” instead of home field?  Like, after an interception in a one-score game, board gets turned to the better speed.  Forcing a quick 3 & out.  And after a long go-ahead TD drive, board gets turned down for the following return and offensive series?

[Coach Shawn]

1 hour ago, zak99b5 said:

 

Not sure I’d appreciate being the visiting team if ALL of them were implemented though!

This has been a good thread with a good variety of ideas presented. Certainly some ideas would have a larger impact than others.  
Which adds a further development into the mix.  That being The notion to give each team a “home field advantage” rule unique to that team.

[Curt]

1. Oh definitely agreed ya'll. More great ideas, thanks. 🙂 I haven't tried any of them yet honestly. Thanks to COVID-19, I got behind in my season-per-calendar-year schedule. I should complete season 19 by the end of this year if I were on task. However, and still playing catch-up as fast as possible, I have 4 more games left to play in my playoff structure for season 18. I do not try any adjustments during my playoffs because it seems right not to change anything for post-season games that did not show up in regular season games if that makes sense. When season 18 is completely done, visitors for season 19 yes and unfortunately, are in for a real shock. Plans are to start the first game with all of the aforementioned disadvantages for visitors and then for as many games as needed, slowly weed out and sort them to create the best acceptable balance for future games with the best home-field advantage as possible. Does that make sense? So, regrettably, it may take quite a long while to find the right combination of allowances for games with realistic home-field advantages, sorry. Blessings, Curt

[Bob Davis]

On 3/12/2023 at 2:43 PM, Curt said:

Sorry ya'll, here's another late, late, late thought that occurred to me while playing [as that is when most thoughts present themselves. Are you sick of me now? :)]. I allow tackles from any angle. Sometime a ball carrier gets hit really quickly and the momentum gains him an extra yard before he comes to a complete stop. I've always likened that to the extra effort I've seen NFL players give each time they carry the ball. To add yet another slight advantage to the home team. Should that happen, the home team would be given that extra yardage whereas the visiting team would have the ball spotted at the point of contact. Does that make sense? Blessings, Curt.

Curt, all your suggestions are really thought-provoking ideas! I wonder though if by providing any of the advantages listed for the ENTIRE GAME gives the home team TOO MUCH of an advantage. Perhaps trying it for a season and recording how often the home team wins vs the road team and comparing those stats with actual NFL stats would provide a good indicator as to whether the rule is fair or not. Just some thoughts. 

[Curt]

Oh definitely Bob, definitely that is the plan to try out all suggestions in my season 19 and whittle them down to a good balance which will take some serious time but just to add more confusion, I have 2 more ideas to add to the long list. I don't incorporate changes during my playoffs. Changes have to be "proven" during regular season games. Playing catch-up from COVID-19 delays as fast as possible, I'm now done with my season 18 playoff games and my season 18 Superbowl will have my New York Giants facing my Minnesota Vikings. Once that game is done and season 19 begins [and its conclusion is due by Christmas this year if possible], I will add 2 more items geared to home-field advantage for "review" purposes. I noticed sometimes a ball carrier starts to veer on a wide arc and although forward progress may be stopped at any time to avoid yardage loss, a yard may be lost by the time the power is shut off and he actually comes to a complete stop if that makes sense? So, I'm going to "test" giving the home team the furthest yard gained and the visitor the actual stopping point, similar to what nefgm.org calls electric slide. I love that term. 🙂 My second home-field advantage test is also related to electric slide. In my most recent games, I noticed that sometimes the electric slide takes my quarterback over the line of scrimmage. As it has been and will be for Superbowl 18, once past the line of scrimmage, a pass is no longer an option. However, I'm going to allow the home team to "ignore the electric slide" over the line of scrimmage and attempt a pass if the quarterback is not yet down. Does that make sense? I know all this is a complete mess, but what a lovely mess it is! Don't you just love it? 🙂 I can't wait to get on to season 19 but rushing my Superbowl 18 is not an option either. Blessings to all, Curt