I watched the Syracuse-Duke game at a restaurant across the street from my Liverpool apartment.

Over the course of the night, patrons grew more furious with each passing foul call. By the time C.J. Fair lifted off and collided with Rodney Hood, I was positive the much-discussed charge call was terrible, a blatant mistake by the officials.

When I returned home and watched the replay, I realized it was much less obvious than I initially thought, much closer to the 50-50 call that most national media members have called it over the last 48 hours.

If I could be swayed by a group of fans in a restaurant, what about the officials in a rollicking venue, equally human, and working in an environment like Cameron Indoor Arena?

I wanted to try to determine if Duke's presumptive home-cooking was a proven fact or a product of the imagination, so I broke down each ACC team's plus-minus foul ratio in ACC conference games.

Duke, not surprisingly, gets more foul calls at home. Of course so does nearly everyone else in the ACC.

FOUL DIFFERENTIAL IN THE ACC Team Home game differential Away game differential Boston College 3 -14 Clemson 6 -4 Duke 12 -27 Florida State 4 14 Georgia Tech 4 -13 Maryland -11 -41 Miami -11 6 North Carolina 24 -24 N.C. State 6 6 Notre Dame -8 -18 Pittsburgh 2 9 Syracuse 29 0 Virginia 22 17 Virginia Tech 0 -1 Wake Forest 9 -3

Eleven of the 15 teams in the conference had better ratios at home.

Two of the ones that didn't, Miami and Florida State, play in some of the ACC's more lifeless environments. N.C. State was even.

Not surprisingly, the conference's bluebloods, North Carolina and Duke, were two of the four teams that get the biggest edge from officials during home games. They get the opposite experience on the road, when crowds find an extra decibel.

But before Syracuse fans complain about Southern bias or blatant favoritism or Krzyzewski's curse, they ought to look in the mirror. The Orange, boosted by the Carrier Dome crowd, are among the four teams that benefit the most from friendly officiating at home.

The meetings between the Tobacco Road teams and Syracuse, filled with some of the most heightened emotion of the ACC season, were also among the most lopsided.

When North Carolina hosted Duke last week, the Tar Heels benefited from nine more foul calls than the Blue Devils. When the Orange visited Duke on Saturday, the Blue Devils received the benefit of the doubt five more times, including on Fair's game-deciding play.

And lest we forget, when the Blue Devils came to Syracuse earlier this year, the Orange benefited from 10 more whistles, two of Duke's key players found themselves in foul trouble, and Rakeem Christmas' block on Hood was replayed, debated and discussed, just like Fair's charge.

Duke's home-court advantage has held up statistically over the least three years. During each of those seasons, the Blue Devils had a better margin at home by double-digits.

Certainly some teams play differently at home. Maybe it's due to comfort or the emotion of the fans.

I'd argue it's largely the product of knowing they'll get the benefit of the doubt on 50-50 calls.

Boeheim's tirade, and first regular-season ejection in 38 years, was shocking. The call that preceded it, and the fact that it went for the home team, shouldn't have been.