What combinations of both team's scores are impossible to achieve at any time during a college football game?

Answer 1

1-1

2-1

3-1

4-1

5-1

7-1

Exept for the specific cases mentioned above, it IS possible for a given team to have just one point on the scoreboard, at least in College. According to the official NCAA football rules, if, during a an extra point or 2-pt conversion attempt, an offensive player carries the live ball all the way back to his own end zone, where he is tackled, the defensive team is awarded a "defensive conversion safety", worth 1 point. (There's another scenario that involves a fumble, interception, or blocked kick on an extra point or 2-point conversion, followed by a series of increasingly unlikely events.) However, extra point and 2-point conversion attempts can only occur after the team attempting them has scored a 6-point touchdown. So if a team scores one point on a defensive conversion safety, the other team must have at least 6 points. Also, given that a team has exactly one point, from a conversion safety, the other team cannot have 7 points because they MUST have a touchdown (6 points) and the only way they could get just one point more is by a conversion safety of their own, which, if it happens, would mean the first team would have had to score a touchdown as well, and would no longer have just 1 point. However, any point total above 7 is possible when the other team has 1. For example, 8-1 - team A gets a touchdown, team B gets a conversion safety, then team A gets a normal safety.

(Please note that, while a "defensive conversion safety" is possible, it is extremely unlikely to occur. It requires not only a series of at least 3 improbable events, but also very bad judgment on the part of at least one player. So it is a very unlikely occurrence. In fact, it has NEVER happened, at least not that anyone knows of, in any College Football game. But it is not impossible.)

A 1-0 score is also possible, as the "official" score of a forfeited game.