Games in the Classroom, part 2 (Football and Baseball)

Hello everyone,

Here are the rules for two games (Blackboard Football and Blackboard Baseball) I frequently used for review in my classroom.

BOTH GAMES:

• Choose sides. The quickest way is for the teacher to choose a division in the classroom. If this isn’t fair, or if there is a lot of time, allow the students to choose sides.
• Choose team captains. Allow each team to choose its own captain. The captains will decide who goes first on offense, and who answers the defensive questions.
• Choose team names.
• Choose which team goes first. A good way is to flip a coin or have the captains choose a number between one and ten.
• The teacher will mark the progress of the team with X’s. Arrows show the direction of ball travel in football. In baseball, Xs show all the base runners on the appropriate bases.
• The teacher is free to adapt the rules in whatever way seems appropriate; however, the rule change must be announced before it is taken and must affect both teams equally.

FOOTBALL

• Draw the field on the board. Include goal lines, 50-yard lines, and lines for each ten yards.
• The team that goes first starts on their own 20-yard line.
• OFFENSE: The captain chooses who goes first on offense. The person selected to answer the question chooses the difficulty of the question by telling how many yards s/he wants to advance. The simplest questions advance 10 yards. Students who want to advance more than 10 yards must answer proportionally more difficult questions (ie, a 20 yard question is twice as difficult as a 10 yard question). Students have 30 seconds to answer the question. (OPTIONAL VARIATION: Students may pass once per down, and may choose to pass to someone else during the 30 seconds. No more than one pass is allowed per question. Another variation forbids the same student to receive more than one pass per down.)
• DEFENSE: After a question has been asked, the teacher asks the defensive team if the answer from the offense was right or wrong. The captain on the defensive team then chooses someone to answer. (The captain may choose him- or herself.) The defensive player then tells whether the offense’s answer was right or wrong.
• ADVANCEMENT, LOSS OF DOWN, OR INTERCEPTION:
• If the offense’s answer was correct, and the defense confirms that it was correct, the offense advances the number of yards requested.
• If the answer was correct, and the defense says it was wrong, the offense advances twice the number of yards requested.
• If the answer was wrong, and the defense says it was correct, the offense advances the number of yards requested.
• If the answer was wrong, and the defense says it was wrong, the offense loses a down. The down is not regained (in other words, there is no “first down” play). Even if the team advances ten yards or more subsequently, the downs lost are accumulated throughout the possession until the offense scores or loses the ball on turnovers.
• If the answer was wrong, and the defense says it was wrong, and the defense can give the correct answer, the ball is intercepted, and the defense advances the ball the requested number of yards in the opposite direction.
• TURNOVERS: Turnovers can happen three ways: turnover on downs, interception, fumbles.
• TURNOVER ON DOWNS: Once an offensive team loses the fourth down, the other team picks up the ball at the point the offense was when the fourth down was lost.
• INTERCEPTION: If the offense gets an answer wrong, and the defense is able to identify the answer as wrong and give the correct answer, the defense intercepts the ball and moves it the number of yards the offense requested on the specific question.
• FUMBLE: If someone on the offense speaks out of turn for any reason, it is a fumble and the other team picks up the ball where it was.
• PENALTIES: The teacher may impose penalties at his/her discretion. Usually a ten yard penalty is imposed when the defense speaks out of turn. The teams may not change their minds after hearing a question, and no one may help anyone on their team.
• SCORING: When the offense answers a question with sufficient yards to cross the goal line, points are scored. (For example, if the offense is on the 20-yard line and correctly answers a 20-yard question, the offense scores a touchdown.) A touchdown is worth six points. In order to get the Points After a Touchdown, the offense decides if it wants one or two extra points. The teacher chooses a simple question for one point and a difficult one for two. There is one chance to answer the question. The same rules apply for answers as above (see ADVANCEMENT, LOSS OF DOWN, OR INTERCEPTION). There is, however, no loss of down on the extra point attempt. If the defense intercepts the ball, they run it back for a “safety” and score two points.
• WINNING THE GAME. The school bell ending the class period ends the game. The team with the most points when the bell rings wins the game.

BASEBALL

• Draw the field on the board. Include the diamond, home, and three bases.
• The team that goes first bats from home plate.
• OFFENSE: The captain chooses who goes first on offense. The person selected to answer the question ch(the “hitter”) chooses the difficulty of the question by telling how many bases s/he wants to advance. The simplest questions advance one base (a “single”). Students who want to advance more than one base (“double,” “triple,” or “home run”) must answer proportionally more difficult questions (ie, a “double” question is twice as difficult as a “single” question). Students have 30 seconds to answer the question. (OPTIONAL VARIATION: Students may choose one “pinch hitter” per inning, but they must choose the pinch hitter within 30 seconds. No more than one pinch hit is allowed per inning.)
• DEFENSE: After a question has been asked, the teacher asks the defensive team if the answer from the offense was right or wrong. The captain on the defensive team then chooses someone to answer. (The captain may choose him- or herself.) The defensive player then tells whether the offense’s answer was right or wrong.
• If the offense’s answer was correct, and the defense confirms that it was correct, the offense advances to the base requested.
• If the answer was correct, and the defense says it was wrong, the offense advances twice the number of bases requested. (If a “double” was requested, for example, the runner scores.)
• If the answer was wrong, and the defense says it was correct, the offense advances the number of bases requested.
• If the answer was wrong, and the defense says it was wrong, the offense is out.
• If the answer was wrong, and the defense says it was wrong, and the defense can give the correct answer, there are two outs, even if the offence had only one “runner” on base.
• If the hitter cannot answer the question in 30 seconds, s/he has struck out.
• SCORING: A run is scored when a base runner advances to home. For example, if a runner is on second base, and a hitter answers a two-base question, the runner on second advances to home and scores.
• TURNOVER: When a team gets three outs in an inning, the opposing team takes over batting, with no runners on base.
• PENALTIES: An out is automatically awarded if someone speaks out of turn on the offense; the hitter loses his/her turn. If the defense speaks out of turn, all of the offensive players on base advance one base, and the hitter advances to first base.
• WINNING THE GAME: The closing bell ends the game. The team with the most points at the end of the class wins.

Jeff Combe