It’s football season. And for many in this state, their attention has turned toward their favorite high school, college and professional teams. Educators can certainly take advantage of that enthusiasm by bringing the math of football into the classroom. And students will get the idea that math, indeed, is everywhere.

With an increased emphasis on math throughout this state, activities that engage students and peak interest in math should be considered in the classroom, experts say.

Math Football isn’t as complicated or complex as
Math Baseball, but it's still plenty of fun.

First, if you’re not familiar with the rules of football, check out one of many football Websites for complete rules (such as Wikipedia).

To save you time, here are some basics you should know to create your own football math problems and solutions:

Click here to download a PDF of a football math field for your students. For a sample game of football math, click here.

• A team gets four downs to get a first down, which is 10 yards.
• The high school, college and pro fields are 53 1/3 yards wide.
• A touchdown is 6 points, a field goal is 3 points and an extra-point kick, which comes after a touchdown, is worth 1 point. A two-point conversion occurs when a team runs or passes the ball into the end zone following a touchdown.
• NFL and college games are 60 minutes with four 15-minute quarters. High school games are 48 minutes with four 12-minute quarters.
• Common penalties, when a team or player commits a rules infraction, are 5, 10 and 15 yards. A false start on the offense (moving before the ball is snapped) or a defensive offsides is 5 yards. A holding penalty on the offense (when a player grabs another player) is 10 yards. And a personal foul (ie., unnecessary roughness, unsportsmanlike conduct) is 15 yards.

Football Math Resources

Games

Dice Football, from mathguide.com

Using yardage and scoring, you can come up with plenty of problems to solve. It’s important to emphasize for those unfamiliar with football that once a team passes the 50-yard line, yardage is counted backward instead of forward. For example, a player runs 8 yards from his team’s 47-yard line to his opponent’s 45-yard line (you count that as 3 yards to the 50 and 5 to the opponent’s 45).

Below are some sample questions:

1. If a team scores 4 touchdowns (worth 6 points each) and makes three extra-point kicks (worth 1 point each), how many points does it have? (Answer: 27)7)
2. Running back Jimmy Jones rushed for 84 yards on 12 carries. How many yards per carry did he average? (Answer: 7)
3. The Seahawks’ offense starts at the 7-yard line and moves 32 yards. On what yard line are the Seahawks on? (Answer: 39-yard line)
4. Running back Ricky Smith breaks a big run from his team’s 32-yard line to the other team’s 21-yard line. How many yards did he carry the ball? (Answer: 47)

Want to Read More about Football Math?

Read About It

Read how one California teacher uses fantasy football in his math class by clicking the links below:

ESPN and The News-Times (Danbury, Calif.)

Read about how another California teacher uses football math in her classroom by clicking here.

Watch It

Watch ESPN’s ‘Outside the Lines’ on Dan Flockhart’s use of fantasy football to help teach troubled youth math. Click here to watch (You Tube)