Straightanswers.
The things people actually ask. If yours is not here, contact us and we will answer it and then add it.
Questions about the sport itself? See the flag football FAQ for parentsfor cost, ages, safety and gear.
Getting started
Flag football stats and combine testing that live on one athlete profile. Somebody taps a phone during a game, and every kid on the roster gets real stats, a stat card and a record that follows them.
Statting is free forever. Premium is an optional paid plan.
To stat it, yes. To follow it, no. Anyone can open the game center from anywhere.
Both.
Statting
Yes. The app guides you play by play. BreakAway U takes about ten minutes.
No. You tap what you see.
Fix it during the game or after. Nothing publishes until you submit.
It is a tap or two per play, while the play resets. Your head stays up, and most people find they end up watching more closely than before.
It works on field signal and is offline safe. It syncs when you reconnect.
Either. Most people use a phone.
5v5 and 7v7, across rec, club, high school, college and adult leagues. Start from a preset like NFL FLAG, USA Flag or IFAF and change what is different. There are more than 100,000 ruleset combinations, house rules included.
Flag football rules
It depends on the rulebook. NFL FLAG and USA Flag 5s play 5v5. USA Flag 7s and NFHS high school play 7v7. IFAF plays 5v5, and college plays 7v7. BreakAway has presets for both.
It depends on the rulebook. An NFL FLAG field is 70 yards long and 30 yards wide. That includes a 10-yard end zone at each end. USA Flag uses the same length, but 25 yards wide. NFHS high school fields are longer. Each state picks 80 or 100 yards between the goal lines. IFAF matches USA Flag, and college plays 80 yards between the goal lines. You can change field length in a BreakAway ruleset.
A first down gives your team a fresh set of plays. In NFL FLAG and USA Flag, you get one per drive. You earn it by crossing midfield. NFL FLAG gives you 4 plays to get there, then 3 more to score. USA Flag gives you 4 and 4. NFHS high school splits the field into 20-yard zones. Reach the next zone line and you get a first down. IFAF works like USA Flag, and college uses 20-yard zones like high school.
Example: Level: girls' youth, NFL FLAG tournament. Rules: NFL FLAG 5v5. SoCal Fire Elite vs Lakeview Lady Hawks, 0-0. 4th and 3 to midfield at its own 22. SoCal Fire Elite faced 4th down at its own 22, 3 yards short of midfield. A 7-yard pass got them across. In NFL FLAG, crossing midfield earns a new set of 3 downs to score. They scored on the 3rd one.
A touchdown counts 6. A safety counts 2. A safety happens when the player with the ball is stopped in the end zone they defend. After a touchdown, your team runs one more play for extra points. Go from close in for 1 point, or from farther back for 2. NFL FLAG and USA Flag use the 5 and the 10 yard lines. NFHS high school uses the 3 and the 10. IFAF uses the 5 and the 10, and college uses the 3 and the 10. In BreakAway, the extra point screen opens by itself after every touchdown.
Example: Level: girls' youth, NFL FLAG tournament. Rules: NFL FLAG 5v5. SoCal Fire Elite vs Lakeview Lady Hawks, 6-0. 1-point try from the 5. After the game's first touchdown, SoCal Fire Elite chose the 1-point try. It was good, making it 7-0. In NFL FLAG, the 1-point try starts at the 5 and must be a pass. The 2-point try starts at the 10.
Yes, but with limits. A rusher is a defender who chases the quarterback. The quarterback is the player who gets the ball to start each play. In NFL FLAG and USA Flag, a rusher starts at least 7 yards back from the ball. NFL FLAG allows 2 rushers at most. Each one raises a hand before the play starts. NFHS high school rules work differently, so check your state's rulebook. IFAF uses the 7-yard rule too, and college has its own rules.
Example: Level: youth, NFL FLAG tournament. Rules: NFL FLAG 5v5. Desert Ridge Coyotes vs LC Legends, 13-16. 1st and goal at the opponent's 14. Trailing 16-13 late, Desert Ridge had 1st down 14 yards from the end zone. The quarterback's flag was pulled behind the line for a 5-yard loss. That is a sack. In NFL FLAG, up to 2 rushers may come from 7 yards back. The drive ended without a score.
Not always. Some rulebooks have no-run zones. Inside one, every play has to be a pass. NFL FLAG has two: the 5 yards before midfield and the 5 yards before the end zone. USA Flag has only the one before the end zone. In both, the quarterback can't just run past the line where the play started. IFAF works like USA Flag. The college rulebook has no no-run zones.
Example: Level: girls' youth, NFL FLAG tournament. Rules: NFL FLAG 5v5. Lakeview Lady Hawks vs SoCal Fire Elite, 0-7. 2nd and goal at the opponent's 3. A 13-yard run put Lakeview 3 yards from the end zone, trailing 7-0. Inside the 5, NFL FLAG allows no running plays. So Lakeview had to throw. After an incompletion, it scored on a 3-yard pass.
It depends on the rulebook. NFL FLAG leagues pick halves of 15 to 25 minutes. USA Flag league games have two 20-minute halves. NFHS high school plays four 12-minute quarters. IFAF plays two 20-minute halves, and college plays four 12-minute quarters. Tournaments often play shorter games. Overtime and mercy rules vary even more. A BreakAway ruleset covers how the game is set up and how overtime works.
Example: Rules: USA Flag 5's. Harbor Point Mariners vs Desert Ridge Coyotes, 26-0. 3rd and 9 to midfield at its own 16. Up 26-0 in the 2nd half, Harbor Point threw a 34-yard touchdown on 3rd down. That made it 32-0. Under USA Flag 5's rules, a 30-point lead ends the game right there. There was no try after the touchdown.
The NFHS high school rules. That is true in states like Illinois and Tennessee, where the state association runs the sport. NFHS games are 7v7 with four quarters, and fields are split into 20-yard zones for first downs. Each state picks its own options, like field size, overtime and the mercy rule. BreakAway has an Illinois HS Flag preset. You can start any state's version from a preset and change what is different.
What you get back
A personal stat card for every game, plus a stat page and season totals.
Live, as the game happens.
Yes. The game center is open to anyone with the link.
The record stays on the athlete's profile. It carries across teams, seasons and events.
Combine
Phone-based combine testing. Time sprints and the 5-10-5 with the AI speed video or a stopwatch, measure jumps, and post every result to the athlete's profile, marked Verified when BreakAway measured it.
A phone and some space. No gates or sensors.
Every measurement can be captured by hand with the built-in stopwatch, tape measure and keypad. Height and vertical jump can be captured with AI video. Parents follow live and results go out with leaderboards straight after.
Height and vertical jump, plus the 5-10-5 shuttle and max speed with AI-Verified Metrics in Premium. Every test can still be captured by hand.
Speed is still live and your results are safe. The combine work is heading into the BreakAway app so measurements sit next to game stats.
Privacy
Not by default. A new athlete profile is private and is not indexed by search engines.
High school programs can make stats public, which is the norm at that level and usually the point, since it is where recruiting happens. Opt-out at any time.
The athlete or their parent, from the profile. It is a setting you can change or reverse whenever you want, not a term you agreed to once.
Events
Your teams, rosters and schedule are preloaded. Some events staff statters, others have each team stat their own games. Either way it runs on one system.
Yes. Set up your own team once and you can stat any game from anywhere.
Book a call and we will walk through your format and dates.