High School football field dimensions: How does it compare to College Football and NFL?

If you’re a fan, the chances are good that you’ve once tried to pay attention to high school football field dimensions. If you have, the chances are better still that you noticed little to no difference between high school football fields and those in college and the NFL.

In the most basic sense, high school football field dimensions mirror the field dimensions in both college football and the NFL. As you may be able to tell, high school football fields look the same as the giant rectangles you see in college and the NFL.

The total length of a high school football field is 120 yards (360ft/109.7m). The length is the same at college and professional levels. Similarly, the width of a high school football field is 53.3 yards (160ft/48.8m), mirroring the width of college and professional football fields as well. The playing zone within the 120-yard length is 100 yards, as with college and NFL dimensions and at each end is a 10-yard end zone.

Notable differences between high school football fields and those in college and the NFL

The distance between the hash marks is where the differences begin to show between high school football field dimensions and that of college and NFL. While this distance is 53-foot-4 in high school, it decreases to 40 feet in college and ultimately stands at 18-foot-6 in the NFL.

The importance of this difference is to narrow the playing area for high school football players, limiting their physical exertion. With a wider playing area, college and pro players have more runs to make and greater physical contact in their overall play.

Furthermore, there are differences in the dimensions of the goalposts between high school on the one hand, and college and NFL on the other hand. The height of the goalpost structure at college and in the NFL is usually 35 feet, whereas, in high school, it is between 22 and 25 feet. Goalposts at high school are wider at 23-foot-4, while college and NFL goalposts are 18-foot-6 wide.