Thanks for a reasoned response, Erle.On to your points:

You state that the higher ranked team is not necessarily better and/or may have tired outt their best starters qualifying for the playoffs. This is more likely to make my argument; the higher ranked teams were most likely already in and the lower team is more likely to have to have used their top guys in the last few games. This is another argument for the home team winning these games.

As far as the lesser ranked teams being beter, sure some are. I said so going in. But, on the whole, the higher ranked teams are better than the lower one.

As far as this being less valid because I had an opinion going in, I think that would disqualify 90% of research in any field. People who do this are obviously well-versed and interested in the subject; they will almost always have an opinion going in. Unless you can show bias in the numbers, my initial theory has no bearing on the results.