Super Bowl LII: Vikings Would Be A Road Team At Home
Never in NFL history has there been a team to play at home in the Super Bowl, but this is becoming a real possibility with the Minnesota Vikings still in the playoff picture.
The site of the Super Bowl has always been intended to be neutral, but this year’s game will take place at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, MN. The Vikings are just one game away from making history and playing in the Super Bowl on their own turf. The fact that the Super Bowl host’s played a divisional game at home versus the Saints was already an NFL first.
Interestingly enough, Minnesota would be the “away” team in such a scenario. Each year, the AFC and NFC alternate on who will be the road team and who will be the home team.
Curbing Home Field Advantage
Still, even with the Vikings as the technical “road” team, it’s still their house. The point of the neutral site is to avoid home field advantage, and this obvious conflict has not gone unnoticed by league officials.
"We're watching it closely, no question about it, and we have been for a while," stated Peter O'Reilly, the NFL’s Senior VP of Events in an interview with SI.
"The good thing is there is a really detailed contingency plan in place that hasn't had to be rolled out before, but is in place. We've been talking with the Vikings and the host committee throughout the back-half of this regular season on a regular basis on all the different scenarios. It adds another factor for sure, but we feel good about the planning in place."
Some of those plans would include the Vikings being able to use their normal practice facilities, which are in Winter Park, MN. The AFC team would practice at the University of Minnesota.
Another potential change would be how Super Bowl tickets are allocated to the AFC and NFC teams. While each team is typically awarded 17.5% of tickets with the host site receiving 5%, both teams would instead receive 20% of tickets from the NFL.
As the “visiting” team, Minnesota would also get to call the coin toss while the AFC team would decide which color jerseys to wear, though this would be the case in any Super Bowl LII scenario.
Vikings Road To The Super Bowl
Before we can start to focus too much on this home Super Bowl situation, the Vikings still have another game to win. Minnesota will need to first defeat the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship in order to represent the conference in the Super Bowl.
The Minnesota vs Eagles betting line has the Vikings favored by 3 ½-points to win the NFC title game on Sunday. It’s been a while since the Vikes were road chalk in a conference game – 2001 to be exact, and we won’t remind you of the outcome – but there is plenty of reason to believe that the team can rise to the occasion.
Right now, the Super Bowl LII betting odds for the Minnesota Vikings are +230, putting them as runner-ups to the New England Patriots. What makes this bet even more intriguing is that a Patriots vs Vikings Super Bowl matchup is also the odds-on favorite at sportsbooks (-105). SportsBettingMinnesota.com thinks there is a definite possibility that Skol Nation could see the Vikings host the Patriots at home on February 4th.
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