Keeping Stats

[cubps1]

I am a statistician for the high school football team and I always seem to have different stats for players than the local newspaper writers. Could anyone help me out with these questions?

1. When a running back rushes for a loss of two yards, should two yards be subtracted from his total?

2. If a quarterback is sacked for five yards, does five yards get subtracted from his?

3. How do penalties work with a players yardage? Let's say a running back gain's five yards and there was a 5-yard facemask call against the defender. Does the running back get credited with 10 yards rushing?

4. Is there a good website out there that explains the rules of stats?

[fbref2]

Stats are very subjective and sometimes inaccurate, especially if the field is not very well marked. Always credit the rusher with the next yard line as long as he is over a line. For example, if he rushes to just over the 20 going toward the 25, and the ball is spotted barely over the 20, you credit to the 21.

To answer your questions:

Losses are taken away from a rusher. If he has a loss of two yards and had rushed for 60 before that play, his total would be 58.

Sacks are credited as rushing yards to a quarterback, so yes, a sack would be negative rushing yards to a QB. That is why many quarterbacks have negative rushing totals.

Penalties are not included -- in your example, the rush would be 5 yards and then 5 penalty yards. Another case is this: Line of scrimmage at 20 going towards 25.
Rusher rushes to the 40. However, a block in the back at the 30 moves the play back to the 20. The rusher is credited with the rush to the spot of the foul, the 30, for a gain of 10. The penalty takes it back to the 20. On a penalty which is enforced from line of scrimmage or behind, no play is recorded for stat purposes.

Hope this helps.

[cubps1]

Thanks you very much, I appreciate it.

[jjrye22]

The complex version of the NCAA Statistics rules can be found on their web site
NCAA Library
You can order it, but the online version is free (but 4 1/2 Megs big). It covers EVERYTHING you want to know about stats and how the NCAA calculates them (ever wonder if you charge the QB -1 yards for a kneel down? Answer from this is no. - lots of little tidbits of information for people who are interested)

In case my link didn't work, it is
http://www.ncaa.org/library/statisti...football_stats



James

[ref18]

I keep stats for the Canadian Football League. This is how we do things up here.

1. A rush for a loss gets charged to the rusher, same as fbref2 said.

2. The lost yardage in a quarterback sack is charged to Team Losses, not the quarterback. The yards will also be credited to the defensive player responsible for the sack.

3. Penalties are recorded separately. It would only result in a 5 yard run, and 5 yards by penalty. If a first down was gained by the runner, it would count as a first down by rushing. If the penalty caused a first down, it would result in a first down by penalty.

4. http://www.cfl.ca/CFLRulebook/scoringrules.html