this year's officiating.

The brilliant book ScoreCasting attempted to analyze why home field/court/rink advantages existed in sports.  Was it due to travel?  Playing in unfamiliar surroundings?  Having a crowd being thoroughly against the road team?  All are factors but the authors concluded that the primary factor was officiating/umpiring.  Not the conscious conspiracy theory that may come to mind.  This is far more of a subconscious factor.  Officials need to make split second decisions, and it was determined that these decisions are often made in favor of the home team as a result of a crowd reaction that could take place literally less than a second before a call is made.  Think about this...you watch a cornerback stumble for a second and now he has to make up ground on the receiver he is covering.  Often, the players collide and a pass interference call is obvious.  Now, what happens when it looks like the players will collide but that never actually happens?  When it's the visiting team's cornerback, the home crowd anticipates that pass interference is about to take place and reacts accordingly.  The official hears this reaction and throws his flag, even though the cornerback may have done everything right in defending the play (made up the lost ground, turned his head around, did not initiate any contact, etc.).  On an obvious blown call, the officials may huddle and subsequently waive the penalty.  On a less obvious one, the bad call is likely to stand.

So, will the absence of crowds result in officials no longer giving this practically subliminal benefit to the home team?  As much as we'd like to make this an objective exercise, it will boil down to being a subjective one.  Total fouls called and free throws taken by each team only tell a small part of the story.  As we know, teams that like to penetrate tend to be fouled more often than teams which rely upon perimeter shooting.  

I think the real answer will boil down to second halves when a game is on the line.  Will there be a disproportionate number of calls that favor the home team (which I tend to believe has historically been the case)?  No 1 or 2 games will answer this; it's something to observe over the course of a season.

For what it's worth, home field advantages in both NFL and college football, each played in front of zero or limited numbers of fans, are down considerably.  Interestingly, this season, baseball had it's fourth highest home field advantage over the past 100 years.   According to Jayson Stark's survey of baseball executives, managers/coaches and players, this was largely attributed to a disruption in players' routines (i.e. being sequestered in their hotel rooms in between games without the freedom to go out).