Disclaimer

Watch With Friends, Inc., and all associated properties including The SZN and BFIG Survivor Pool, exists solely for entertainment purposes. Any competitions offered through this site are free to play, skill-based, and not based on the outcome of any single game or player performance. To win an NFL survivor pool, you must possess knowledge of NFL teams’ relative strength and the myriad other variables that affect which team wins each game. You must also apply a unique strategy over several months, related to which teams you pick at which times. Point spreads do not play a role in BFIG. All prizes offered are stated in advance and do not vary based on the number of people participating. Watch With Friends, Inc. is not a gambling business and accepts no wagers or entry fees.

You should play BFIG to have fun with friends, and have fun watching football. You should not play BFIG if your sole goal is to win the pool, because, while someone does win every year, it’s highly unlikely you will win. We still love you, though, and you’ll probably beat Commish, because he’s terrible at survivor pools.

Full rules

1. The Green Bay Packers will probably win the Super Bowl. This is not really a rule, but The Commish has the authority to state this whenever he so pleases.
2. You pick one team per week as the winner of its game. You submit your pick via this website.
3. Each person can only have one BFIG entry. This is a big part of what makes BFIG so fun - you live and die on your one pick each week. Violation of this rule, whether it's through multiple accounts under the same name, pseudonyms, or assumed identities, will result in forfeiture of all of your BFIG entries.
4. Weekly picks open after the Monday Night Football game, at approximately 11:30pm (PST) Monday. You can submit your pick at any point between then and 10 minutes before the week's first game. Starting in 2014, the week's first game always falls on a Thursday, so if you don't submit your pick by 5:10pm (PST) on Thursday, you are eliminated. Pay attention to the schedule, and emails from Commish reminding you to make your pick. Better yet, turn on text reminders in your settings.
5. There is one and only one exception to the pick deadline, and that's in Week 1. In Week 1, if you pick Thursday's opening game, you must submit your pick by the normal time (5:10pm PST on Thursday). If you don't pick Thursday's game, you can submit your pick at any point until 9:50am PST on Sunday. All players who picked the Thursday game will be announced to the full pool via email on Thursday, and the number of Thursday game picks will also be displayed on the signed-in BFIG homepage. The rest of the picks will be revealed Sunday before kickoff. Again, this ONLY applies to Week 1. For all other weeks, you must submit your pick by Thursday at 5:10pm (PST) or you are eliminated.
6. You can change your pick at any time as long as you submit the change by 5:10pm (PST) Thursday.
7. You cannot pick the same team twice.
8. If your pick wins its game, then you move on to the next week. The last undefeated person wins the title.
9. Ties count as losses. However, if you tie, and all other remaining players lose, then you claim the championship.
10. There will be one, and only one, champion each season.
11. Starting in Week 13, everyone still alive in the title pool will begin picking in the Title Belt Tiebreaker, which serves as the primary tiebreaker in the event multiple people pick all 17 weeks correctly OR all remaining players lose in the same week. The Title Belt Tiebreaker only matters in determining a champion in the event of a season-ending tie. It does not factor in if the pool ends before Week 13, and it does not factor in determining any other places (see further rules for non-1st place ties). For the Title Belt Tiebreaker, you must pick three teams per week to win their games. You start with all teams available to be picked, and you can only pick each team once. You continue picking three teams per week through Week 17. In the event of a season-ending tie, your total win-loss record in the Title Belt Tiebreaker will serve as the primary tiebreaker in determining our season champion. In the event multiple tied people also compile the same Title Belt Tiebreaker record, then we move to a pickoff (next rule).
12. If there is a tie for best Title Belt Tiebreaker record, OR if all remaining players lose in the same week before Week 13, then we will move to a Tiebreaker Pickoff that takes place the following week.
13. In a Tiebreaker Pickoff, players pick the winners of all games being played that week. This can include playoff weeks in the event of a season-ending tie. Players must assign a "confidence ranking" to each game -- the pick you are most confident about gets a "1." The Tiebreaker Pickoff winner is determined by the number of games chosen correctly. If players tie on this criteria, then the player who had the lowest confidence ranking assigned to the first incorrect pick is the winner. If there's still a tie, we move to the confidence ranking of the second incorrect pick, and so on, until the tie is broken. If the tie can't be broken, then we do another Tiebreaker Pickoff the following week.
14. If there is a tie for any place other than 1st, and the last place that earns a prize is not being contested, then all tied players will split the combined prizes for those places.
15. If one of the places being contested is the last place that earns a prize, then a Tiebreaker Pickoff must occur. (There is no option to split the prize because one or more people will not earn a prize.)
16. If you lose in Weeks 1-4, then you are eligible for the Second Chance Pool, which will start in Week 5. In this Pool, you start fresh (all teams can be picked) and you pick one winner per week until Week 10, when if you are still alive, you start picking two teams per week. The winner of the Second Chance Pool wins the trophy formerly known as the "Blount Cup," the "Moss Cup," the "Colts Luck Trophy," and the "Walrus Cup." (New name TBD.)
17. The Second Chance Pool uses the Tiebreaker Pickoff to determine a champion in the event of a championship tie.
18. "Catastrophe clause": In the case 90% or more of the pool drops out in Weeks 1-3, Commish may choose to redistribute up to 6% of the total prize pool, increasing the Second Chance Pool prizes. Title pool places 1 and 2 cannot be changed. I don't anticipate to ever use this rule again (it happened in 2015 when six of the seven most favored teams in Week 2 lost - a massive statistical anomaly), but it's here in order to preseve engagement over the course of the season - something I believe greatly contributes to BFIG's uniqueness and fun.
19. Have fun. You know Gronk would.

2016 prizes

As previously stated, all prizes for any competition offered by watch With Friends, Inc., including the BFIG NFL Survivor Pool, are stated in advance and do not vary based on the number of people participating.

All prizes will be awarded at once, no later than Feb. 12, 2017 - one week after the Super Bowl.

Declaration and payment of all income taxes associated with competition prizes are the sole responsibility of the competition prizewinner. We collect W-9s from members in order to comply with state and federal tax laws. We issue form 1099-MISC to members with reportable income of at least $600 in any calendar year.