tupaview: Outdoor teams dominate NFL playoffs
By Mike Tupa
BARTLESVILLE AREA SPORTS REPORT
The Tennessee Titans might want to reconsider building a domed stadium — at least if they want to see their chances of going to the Super Bowl trend downward.
That’s right — teams with outdoor stadiums enjoy an almost overwhelming advantage of getting to the Super Bowl.
Don’t think so?
Look at this year’s conference finalists — Kansas City Chiefs (outdoors), Philadelphia Eagles (outdoor), Buffalo Bills (outdoors) and Washington (outdoors).
But there are some other facts as well to support that theory.
Going back to Super Bowl XLV (2010-11) there have been 15 teams that played in the Big Show— Atlanta Falcons, Baltimore Ravens, Carolina Panthers, Cincinnati Bengals, Denver Broncos (2), Green Bay Packers, Kansas City Chiefs (4), Los Angeles Rams (2), New England Patriots (5), New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles (2), Pittsburgh Steelers, San Francisco 49ers (3), Seattle Seahawks (2), Tampa Bay.
The breakdown of outdoor vs. indoor stadium teams is incredible.
Of the 15 teams, only two played in indoor stadiums — the Los Angeles Rams and Atlanta Falcons. And the Rams had played one of their Super Bowl seasons (2017-18) in an outdoor facility.
That means of the last 14 Super Bowls, 87 percent of the teams were the products of outdoor stadiums.
The evidence gets even stronger.
Of the 14 matchups, teams with outdoor stadiums won 13 times.
Beyond that, the teams that represented outdoor stadiums made up 26 of the 28 representatives in the game! That works out to a 93-percent average.
Again, let’s look at this year — in addition to all the conference finalists being connected with outdoor stadiums, eight of 13 teams (62 percent) that qualified for the playoffs play home games outside.
Of the eight teams in the Divisional Round during the weekend (Jan. 18-19), more than half (five) are products from playing in the weather.
People can deduce from these numbers what they want to.
Without being too obvious, the information seems to suggest playing in outdoor weather toughens up players in a way that makes them more rugged in the playoffs.
Perhaps a simplistic conclusion. I don’t have the analytics (I’ve grown to hate that word) or brilliant people and experts in such things to consult to take a deeper and more intelligent plunge into this subject.
Only one definable conclusion can be made — for whatever reason teams that play in outdoor stadiums have dominated the playoffs the past 14 seasons.
And, once again this year because, as I mentioned, all four conference finalists come from the outdoor group.
That guarantees another Super Bowl showdown between outdoor-stadium teams and a 14th championship in 15 years by a weather-enhanced powerhouse.
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JUST A SUGGESTION
During the past decade, both of Oklahoma Wesleyan University’s soccer teams have been among the nation’s most distinguished regular season powerhouses — the men’s squad going back to a few years before that.
Both the Eagles and Lady Eagles also have made some strong playoff runs. But other than a run to the men’s final in the 2020-21 season, OKWU men and women are still chasing their respective elusive national titles or even advancing to more Final Fours.
I have one idea. Perhaps the Eagles could schedule more day matches instead of playing at night on every home date. I’ve noticed the playoff schedule often schedules day games.
Obviously, it’s different playing in sunlight than under artificial lights. There are contrasting shadows, field of vision and weather conditions — and perhaps eating and resting patterns.
I think a strong balance of day and night games could prepare for whatever conditions a team might face in the postseason.
