Is the Homecoming game traditionally the 1st or last home game? Wikipedia didn’t specify, though had cool info otherwise.
Neither. It’s usually some arbitrarily defined game in the middle of the season. Typically High Schools and Colleges tend to elect games that are more winnable than others when convenient. Some schools dictate their homecoming based on the calendar or some historical date of relevance, perhaps a school founding date or simply the 3rd weekend in October. There’s no universal definition though.
The collegiate concept was foundedat Illinois as nothing more than a alumni reunion event.
The alumni are coming home.
IME, in college, Homecoming games are usually in mid to late October, perhaps the first weekend in November.
My basic reaction to the idea of homecoming, independent of school, is:
- mid-season
- weak opponent
- focused on alumni activities
- much non-football hoopla
That said, you can get a feel for the overall idea in the SEC at:
http://www.saturdaydownsouth.com/2010/homecoming-football-games/
I don’t associate homecoming with first or last home game of the season.
If you pinned me down to one phrase to associate most with homecoming I would say “easy win.” How often that comes true is a variable by individual school.
The weaker the individual home team the less likely it is to be the case.
Schedules are made far enough in advance that by the time the year arrives the “weak” team may have gotten much stronger and/or the home team may be too weak (or unlucky enough) for the desire for an “easy win” to happen. In that event you have a greater number of pissed off alumni – than usual. 
Although it was not a homecoming game 2007 Appalachian State vs. Michigan football game - Wikipedia is a good example of what can happen when the “easy win” backfires.
It might be a fun project for readers in this thread to bring an example of their school’s worst homecoming performance. There must be hundreds!
You could look at it as alumni homecoming, or team homecoming, IE they need to play an away game the previous game. Not sure if that’s across the board for every school.
Really?
Somebody forgot to tell the NCAA, Trivial Pursuit, Jeopardy, and Wikipedia!
Or maybe they figured out that it really started at MIZZOU.
My alma mater is Kent State, which traditionally has a weak football team. As a result, it has always seemed to me that Kent State has been the visiting team in an inordinate amount of opponent’s Homecoming Games. “When shall we schedule homecoming? It’s got to be a against a team we can beat.” “When does Kent State come to town?” 
I’ve always thought it should follow an away game. HomeCOMING implies you’ve BEEN somewhere. But generally it’s who is the weak opponent somewhere in midseason.
But it’s not the students who are coming home, it’s the alumni.
–Cliffy
It should be both, in my view. Team returning victorious after a conquering tour, alumni returning home to their school.
In my home town, it has always followed an away game.
If everyone in the trailer park brought their mobile homes to the game …
Tailgating happens every game. I’d vote for Dwellingcoming as a better name for the event you describe.
If you called Homecoming a game played at home after an away game, there would/could be multiple homecomings per season. Does anybody have more than one “Homecoming” per year? Why not have “Awaygoing,” too?
Actually, I was told it was only the first game after two away games, but I found out that was a lie. But there always is an away game before homecoming, so that the football players can be welcomed “back home,” along with the class of 25 years ago.
Any other game in the season will not qualify. And, yes, it is always against a really cruddy team, usually in a division or two below. Heck, the players on the other team know they won’t win. I’ve seen third stringers thrown in. And, of course, the occasional team that actually wants to win against a homecoming team…
Don’t home and away games usually alternate, anyway? So any given home game is likely to be right after an away game.
That’s why I at first bought the explanation: two away games in a row is not that common.
The mix of home and away games varies by team and by year. This year Auburn (for example) has away games at
Thu, Sep 9 at Mississippi State W 17-14 –
Sat, Oct 9 at Kentucky W 37-34 –
Sat, Oct 30 at Mississippi W 51-31 –
Fri, Nov 26 at (6) Alabama
The other eight games are at home.
See http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/teams/aar for more details.
Also, see http://auburntigers.cstv.com/sports/m-footbl/sched/aub-m-footbl-sched.html to see that the Chattanooga game (this next weekend) is HC = Homecoming,