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Ryan McGinn: It may sound totally maligned and naive, but the only way these home losses keep rolling is like this is a false sense of safety in home. Knowing how hard winning on the road can be coaches have their teams more focused than ever before they hop off the plane, but don't have the same sense of urgency at home. This is creating virtual trap games; if we can win on the road, winning at home should be a forgone conclusion... but that is definitely not the case this year. Such is football.
Sam Barbee: I don't know if it's as much about home-field advantage as it is about good teams. Good teams win the road, and the Pac-12 has lots of good teams. Does that mean home-field advantages are a thing of the past? Probably not, but I don't think home games are pencil-in wins like they once were.
Trace Travers: I don't know entirely know what it is, whether it's something in the water, or coaches putting together excellent game plans in certain situations. Arizona executed incredibly well in Autzen, and ditto for the Ducks down in Pasadena. That combined with what Ryan said about a false sense of security at home may add up to this record. It's fantastic that every team comes to play wherever they go, and the road record shows that.
Patrick Ghidossi: It really is ridiculous that this record could easily sit at 16-2, But, it could also easily swing the other way as well. A missed field goal, the Jael-Mary, a few plays here and there in the Arizona-Oregon game, a 2nd half stall job by Utah, all of those things contributed to narrow road wins. While there are loud and intimidating venues in the Pac-12, UCLA and Stanford aren't necessarily known for raucous crowds and UCLA has dropped two in a row at home while Stanford lost to USC at home. Aside from pure chance, I think the success of road teams is a strong indicator of just how deep and tough this conference has become.
Mark Schipper: It is weird. Over the years I’ve developed, without any conscious effort, a standing belief that unexplainable things happen to good teams on the road. Road losses in college football are one of the least surprising things in the world to me - no matter who or how good the team. Sometimes you can get too comfortable at home and play without an edge. In other places, there isn’t much of a home field advantage, anyway. Arizona State often struggles to fill up that stadium. USC and UCLA have huge arenas but they are not necessarily intimidating. I don’t know that everyone at Stanford is aware they have both a football team and a stadium for home games. I think the true home edge venues in the league are Washington and Oregon, and both those teams have lost at home. Secondary home advantages go to the schools in out of the way locations: Wazzu, Zona and Oregon State, but they are often beat at home. It does seem to me that traveling is less and less difficult as the years go by. Everything is basically familiar so all you’re counted on for is to show up and play well. This season could easily be an aberration, too.
