Urban Meyer thinks empty football stadiums will really hurt home teams during the 2020 football season.
Fans won’t be allowed at Big 10 football games this season because of coronavirus, and Meyer thinks that’s a major problem for home teams, especially the dominant ones. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
For example, Meyer thinks Penn State playing in an empty stadium is worth 10 points to the road team. Listen to him break it down below.
Could no fans in the stands mean as much as a 10-point swing?@CoachUrbanMeyer thinks it’s possible at a place like @PennStateFball, which is the “most difficult place” he’s coached in his career.
Full Urban Analysis with @gerrydinardo ➡️ https://t.co/UNaXleZIsB pic.twitter.com/xslyi22Bsg
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) September 28, 2020
I’ve been making a similar argument for a long time. Ever since it became clear fans would be limited or banned during the pandemic, I’ve been saying you can expect some wild outcomes.
The talent gap between Power Five teams isn’t as big as people realize. It’s there, but it’s not impossible to overcome.
Packed stadiums are incredibly intimidating and they help the home team. They really do. Packed stadiums are a nightmare for visiting offenses because you can’t hear anything.
Now, that’s not a concern anymore, which helps close the talent gap. As mentioned in the video, Wisconsin is visiting Ann Arbor to play Michigan, and there won’t be any fans to help the Wolverines.
Michigan would probably lose that game anyway, but not having fans to help means that Wisconsin can just go to work on offense.
If you’re a fan of UM, that’s really bad news.
We’ll see how it shakes out, but you can expect some upsets in the B1G. We’ve seen some elsewhere in college football, and I doubt the Big 10 will be immune.