American football scoreboard guide

For parents, coaches and volunteers streaming youth and high school football. The free board keeps the score, the quarter and possession; the Advanced board adds the clock, down and distance, and timeouts. New to the scoreboard? Start with How to set up your scoreboard. For a game-day walkthrough, see Scoring football: down and distance.

Pick your board

American football has 10 boards on 6 cards in the picker: four looks along the top or bottom (each with Standard and Advanced) and two Vertical sizes for a corner. There’s no Compact board.

Board	Free or Pro	What viewers see
Classic · Standard	Free	Team names, scores, QTR (or OT) with the quarter, and a bar for the team with the ball.
Broadcast, Studio or Slim · Standard	Pro	The same, in that look and in your team colors.
Advanced, in any look	Pro	Adds the game clock, down and distance (like “3rd & 7”) and timeouts left.
Vertical and Vertical Large	Pro	Adds a possession arrow and a down-and-distance strip, in a corner of the frame.

The rules

Football uses fixed rules, so there’s no Rules page:

• Four 15-minute quarters.
• 3 timeouts per team. Timeouts don’t refill by themselves.
• One overtime period, shown as OT.
• Downs stop at 4th.

Score a game

• TD (+6), FG (+3), 1PT, 2PT and −1 for each team. Score a safety with 2PT.
• Pos, in the action bar, switches possession and resets to 1st & 10.
• The quarter, with − and +.

On the Advanced board you also get:

• The game clock. Tap it to type a time, and use the play and pause button to run it.
• The clock and timeout section: ±1:00 and ±0:01 to nudge the clock, and a T/O button with a dot for each timeout left.
• The DOWN bar: the down (1st to 4th), the yards to go with − and +, and 1st&10 for a new set of downs.

What viewers see

Third quarter, 4:12 left: EAGLES lead TIGERS 21–17, and it’s EAGLES’ ball, 3rd & 7. EAGLES have 2 timeouts left, TIGERS 3.

1. A first down. Tap 1st&10 on the DOWN bar.
2. A turnover or a punt. Tap Pos: the ball changes sides on the board and the down resets to 1st & 10.
3. A touchdown. Tap TD, then 1PT or 2PT for the try.

Remote scoring

Football is where remote scoring pays off. The web scorer has TD, FG, 1PT and 2PT, possession, and the down, clock and timeout bars, which are greyed out when your board is a Standard board. Hand it to a parent who knows the game. See the remote scoring guide to start a session.

Tips

• Timeouts don’t come back by themselves. Use the + next to T/O to give one back at the half if your league does.
• A safety is 2PT. There’s no separate safety button.

Free and Pro