Free American football scoreboard

Why score American football with ScoreZen

• ✓One-tap scoring, built for American football
• ✓Share the live score by QR code or link
• ✓Free for spectators — no app to install to watch
• ✓Keeps working if the connection drops
• ✓34 sports, tournaments and standings included

How American football scoring works

A touchdown is worth 6 points and earns a try (1 point by kick, or 2 points by replaying from short range). A field goal kicked between the posts is worth 3 points. A safety (an offensive player downed in their own end zone) gives the defense 2 points. The running total determines each team's score.

Match format

A game is played over 4 quarters. Their length varies by federation: 15 minutes in the NFL and NCAA, generally 12 minutes in IFAF/youth play. A halftime break separates the 2nd and 3rd quarters; if tied, overtime rules specific to each federation apply.

How to win

The team with the most points at the end of regulation wins. If tied, an overtime period decides the game according to the federation's format (sudden death or alternating possessions).

Recommended ScoreZen setup

Set up American football using point-based scoring with the "Official" preset: 4 periods (quarters) and free point entry (6, 3, 2, 1) to reflect touchdowns, field goals, conversions, and safeties. The "Recreational" preset works for simply tracking the running score.

How American football scoring actually works

Four things score, and they are worth four different amounts: a touchdown 6, a field goal 3, a safety 2, and the try after a touchdown 1 or 2. The values are identical in both codes (NFL Rule 11-1-2; NCAA Rule 8-1-1). That short table explains the odd numbers on the board: 7 is never scored in one go, it is 6 and then 1.

The try is a separate down, played with the game clock stopped. Where it starts is the big difference: the NFL snaps a kick 15 yards from the goal line and a run or pass from the 2 (Rule 11-3-1); college snaps both on the opponent's 3-yard line (NCAA Rule 8-3-2-c). A kick is worth 1; a touchdown during the try is worth 2, for either team, so a blocked kick returned by the defence is two points (NFL Rule 11-3-2).

The safety is the score that gets written down wrongly. Its 2 points go to the team that was defending (NFL Rule 11-5; NCAA Rule 8-1-1), and the team scored upon restarts with a free kick from its own 20-yard line (NFL Rule 6-1-2-a; NCAA Rule 6-1-1). During a try, the same action is worth 1 point to the opponent. A field goal is 3, through the same uprights as the 1-point kick: 18 feet 6 inches apart, crossbar 10 feet up (NFL Rule 1-3-1; NCAA Rule 1-2-5).

(NFL Rule Book 2026, rules 1-3, 4-1, 4-4, 4-5, 5-1, 6-1, 11-1, 11-3, 11-5 and 16-1; NCAA Football Rules 2026, rules 1-1, 1-2, 3-1, 3-2, 3-3, 6-1, 8-1 and 8-3; NFHS General Instructions for Football Game and Play Clock Operators.)

NFL, college, high school: three different scoreboards

The values never move; everything around them does. Both codes play no more than 11 players a side (NFL Rule 5-1-1; NCAA Rule 1-1-1-a) over 60 minutes, four quarters of 15 (NFL Rule 4-1-1; NCAA Rule 3-2-1). American high schools play 12-minute quarters. Halftime is 13 minutes in the NFL (Rule 4-1-3) and 20 minutes in college (Rule 3-2-1-b), so plan your announcements on your own competition's number.

The try line changes what you see: a college kick from the 3-yard line is a formality, an NFL kick from the 15 is a 33-yard attempt, which is why professionals miss them. Then the clock trap. In the NFL a first down never stops the clock; Rule 4-4 does not list it. In college it stops only after the Two-Minute Timeout of the second and fourth quarters, and restarts on the referee's signal (Rule 3-3-2-e-1). In high school, every time — but the referee winds it again as soon as the ball is spotted, so the stoppage lasts only a few seconds.

Overtime is where the codes part company. An NFL regular-season overtime is a single 10-minute period, both teams must get the ball, and a tie is a legal result (Rule 16-1-3); in the postseason, 15-minute periods run until someone wins (Rule 16-1-4). College uses no game clock at all: alternating possessions from the 25-yard line, a compulsory two-point try after a touchdown from the second extra period, then, from the third, one two-point play from the 3 (Rule 3-1-3). Three timeouts a half in both codes in regulation, never carried over — overtime resets that: two per team in an NFL regular-season overtime (Rule 16-1-3), one per extra period in college (Rule 3-1-3-h).

At the table on match day

Here the scorer is a crew, not a person. The game clock and the play clock are two jobs held by two people, and the NFHS instructions add that neither should also run the scoreboard. On the sideline opposite the press box, usually three more volunteers work the chains, roughly six feet outside the line: two rods at least five feet high whose inside edges are exactly ten yards apart, plus the down indicator on a rod of the same minimum height (NCAA Rule 1-2-7).

See the referee before the kickoff: halftime length, kickoff time, the signals he will give you, what happens if a clock must be adjusted. Note the toss, who receives and which way each team is going: they change ends after the first and third quarters, and a board left the wrong way round has a whole stand reading the wrong score.

The mistakes are always the same four. Writing 7 the moment a touchdown is signalled: it is 6 until the try has been played — and if the touchdown comes on the down on which time in the fourth quarter expires, the try is not attempted at all unless the points would affect the outcome, a team leading by one or two points also having the option to forgo it (NCAA Rule 8-3-2-a). Crediting the safety to the team that conceded it. Writing 1 for a field goal or 3 for an extra point: same posts, different value. Recording a defensive score on a try as 6 instead of 2.

When something is wrong, say it immediately and out loud to the nearest official: officials can correct the game clock only before the next legal snap or kick (NFL Rule 4-1-4), and a contested score works the same way. Note the time showing at every stoppage — that note is what puts the exact seconds back. You keep the trace; the officials hold the verdict.

What ScoreZen changes for American football

You score from your phone, one thumb, with the values of the sport already in place — touchdown, extra point, two-point try, field goal, safety — and the quarter on the same screen. The score the whole stand is arguing about updates in the same second for everybody.

Then you share the game with a link, or a QR code taped to the gate. Parents, the injured lineman, grandparents three hundred kilometres away follow it live. Spectators are free, unlimited, and never need an account. On site, TV mode fills the clubhouse television, the transparent overlay drops the live score into OBS if the club streams, and the A4 score sheet prints for whatever paper your competition still wants.

For a flag tournament or a youth festival on several fields, ScoreZen runs knockout with an optional third-place game, home-and-away championships, pools then a final bracket, the Swiss system, best-of-3 and best-of-5 series, and rotating teams. One QR code covers the whole tournament: each player finds their own game and scores it, while you follow every field from the table. It replaces the clipboard, not the chain crew.

Afterwards the replay and the vertical story get shared, the club site embeds the widget, the fixtures export to CSV, and the read-only public API and the ICS feed supply your own pages without a key. It keeps counting when the signal drops at a rural ground and re-syncs as soon as it is back, in 25 languages. Three trial matches are free for life; then one payment of €1.99, for life. Club spaces are €4.99, €9.99and €29.99a month.

Frequently asked questions