Scrolling through my Twitter feed as I watched Penn State stun No. 6 Michigan on Tuesday at the Bryce Jordan Center, I came across one post in particular that piqued my interest.

It came from a Michigan beat reporter, who was covering the game for Michigan’s student newspaper. With Penn State’s lead growing, the reporter argued that if more fans were in attendance and there was more noise, it would be more difficult for the Wolverines to come back and avoid the upset.

My first instinct was to agree. That’s the way we’re taught to think, right? More butts in seats means more noise, which in turn gives the home team a better chance of winning. Every time we tune into a big game on TV, we’re force fed the narrative that the home team’s fans are going to impact the game in some fashion.

As a result, Penn State basketball fans often stare longingly at the black curtain the covers the upper deck of seats, figuring their team’s fortunes might change if they could just fill the arena for a big game once in a while.

If recent results are any indication, though, the Bryce Jordan Center’s signature silence might be deadlier than any amount of noise when the best teams come to town.

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Over the last four seasons, Penn State is 7-7 at home against ranked teams. In wins against ranked teams, the Nittany Lions have averaged about 9,177 in attendance, or about 60 percent of the BJC’s capacity.

When you consider that Penn State is just 66-62 against all opponents — ranked or not — over the same time span, it certainly seems like the cavernous Bryce Jordan Center and its lack of energy has become something of a dragon slayer.

To test my suspicions, I decided to find a team with a comparable talent level and what most would consider to be a “better” atmosphere and compare its fortunes against ranked teams to that of Penn State.

Minnesota seemed like the most logical choice. The Golden Gophers have a comparable Big Ten record over the last four years, with 23 wins and 45 losses. Penn State is 24-43 over the same time span.

The Golden Gophers have averaged 11,481 fans at all of their home games over the last six years, not just the games against ranked teams that figure to draw better crowds. Students frequently dress up as farm animals and make considerably more noise in their 14,625-seat arena than Penn State fans manage at the Bryce Jordan Center.

And yet, Minnesota is just 3-8 against the ranked teams that have made their way into “The Barn” over a four-season sample.

These are small samples, and there’s certainly no science to this, but it definitely seems like the BJC might be lulling Penn State’s opponents to sleep.

Think about it. Most of the ranked teams — Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue and the like — that come into the BJC play in front of raucous crowds every night, whether they’re at home or on the road.

The sleepy atmosphere in State College can be a shock to the system for teams like that, and Penn State certainly seems to be taking advantage of it.

The silence is deadlier than you think.