A model of a sudden-death field-goal football game as a sequential duel (Q1100102)

A highly simplified `football' game is constructed where individuals can run or kick for a field goal. It represents an attempt to extend the domain of the modeling of duels to a broader category than those previously studied. There are some worthwhile similarities (and important differences) in military, sports and economic tactics which are reasonably well modeled as zero-sum games. The theory of duels for military application has been reasonably well developed but there are at least two other activities beyond war in which the zero-sum game duel is worth considering. They are in sports and in the tactics of advertising campaigns or other economic activities where the budgets of A and B are set and the fight is a non-price duel over a market of fixed size. In this paper we concentrate on the extension of dueling to sports. Rather than claim immediate relevance to football as it is played, a highly simplified version of `sudden-death' scoring is introduced. The basic game is as follows. With equal probability the teams toss to see who gets the ball. The team with the ball can either run or try to kick a field goal. The first team to score wins the game.