Sporting venues like Lambeau Field, Yankee Stadium, the Staples Center and Joe Louis Arena all have something in common despite involving different sports.
Home-field advantage.
Some experts claim home field advantage is a mental psyche that motivates the home team to win.
In most cases, it seems to work.
A handful of things are claimed to be advantages of playing at home.
Having the support of the home crowd, not having to travel and getting to sleep in your own bed, and getting to choose your uniforms — if you play in hotter climates — are all reasons to prefer playing at home.
For ASU football, home-field advantage seems to reign true.
Since 2007, ASU has a record of 26-12 at home, with 15 of those being wins against conference opponents.
Unfortunately for ASU, only three of its remaining eight games are at home.
ASU seems to be able to beat anyone at home, as we saw it dismantle a highly favored USC team last season.
That looks promising with No. 2 Oregon visiting Tempe in three weeks on ESPN.
It is the other five of eight games away from Sun Devil Stadium, however, that holds the question mark for the 2012 season.
Over the past five years, ASU has been a terrible road team, and opposing teams know it.
ASU has not won a non-conference road game since 2006, and posts an overall road record of 10-21.
Playing at Sun Devil Stadium seems comfortable for the football program, yet it is hard to look at the stands lately.
When imagining home-field advantage, the stands should be packed full to standing room only.
The opposing quarterback should be pointing to his ear holes on his helmet, looking at the sideline and illustrating he can’t hear the play call.
False starts should happen multiple times a game, thus causing the crowd to get even louder.
The stands should be a sea of ASU gold, so that those select few in white and black stand out.
Home stadiums of big schools like Florida and Nebraska are filled with fans in nothing but blue and red.
ASU football games should be that way.
If it’s a blackout, every fan in that stadium should be wearing black.
Same thing goes if the Sun Devils are wearing their typical gold uniforms.
When opponents come to Sun Devil Stadium, they should be worried just as much about the 12th man as they are about ASU players themselves.
Coaches should be preparing their team with loud speakers of crowd noise all week leading up to a game versus ASU.
Visiting teams — especially Pac-12 rivals — shouldn’t expect anything less than a packed house of hell-raising Sun Devil fans when they walk onto Frank Kush Field.
Pac-12 competition has begun and the hunt towards the Rose Bowl is in pursuit.
Where will you be when the Sun Devils take the field?
Reach the columnist at msterrel@asu.edu
