Should I use ISO 3200 and a monopod for photography at a HS Nighttime Football Game?

I have a Nikon D80 with a 18-200mm Nikkor Vr Lens. I have currently been using ISO 1600, f3.5, and shutter around 1/50 and 1/60 at night without a monopod and my shots have been somewhat decent. Any advice on settings and tools to make my photos come out better?

Buy a Tokina 80-200 2.8, the gold ring version. It runs around 350.00 on ebay.

You lens is a 3.5/5.6, so more than likely, you are using the 200 end of the zoom. You're actually running 1600 5.6 1/60. A 2.8 zoom would get you to 800 2.8 1/125. THose settings would produce a lot better photos, both shutter speed and noise would improve.

I use a D300, and at ISO 3200, the shots look bad. With a D80, they would look worse than on a D300.

If you can't afford a better lens, go manual exposure at 1/60 1600 5.6. Use a lot of panning.

Don't get a monopod, they are good for a 300mm 2.8, not really useful for an 18-200 shooting sports. It will cost you more shots from the loss of free movement.

Being that you are already shooting VR, I don't think the monopod will help a lot. If the lens seems to get heavy by the end of the night you can consider it, but sometimes you have to turn off the VR to use a monopod and that might not be a good trade.

My guess is that your action images show a lot of blur at the speeds you are shooting from player movement. You can try to under expose some shots to see how they come out. The camera's meter will attempt to make the scene 18% grey, like it is a normal day. Under exposing a little will still have the players look good but you will pick up 1/3 or 2/3 a stop you can use for a faster shutter speed,

You are probably getting noise at ISO 1600 and it will get worse at 3200. You might want to invest in a package like Noise Ninja to help.