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Tie Breaker Rules for NFL Pick'em




Ties

If you stumbled upon this page you are probably looking for 1 of 2 things: The first being how to break a tie if two or more participants correctly pick the outcome of the same number of games. The second reason you may of found this page is to find out what should be done if an NFL game ends in a tie. As you scroll down the page you will find explanations of both.


Pick'em Sheet Tie-Breaker

At the bottom of your NFL Pickem sheets is a place for each participant to write down the total points scored in the Monday night football game. During the first week, which has 2 Monday night games, we recommend using the total points scored by all 4 teams.


This tie breaker will only come into play if two or more participants are tied after the Monday night game is complete.


It's important to understand that the rules for the pickem pool are flexible and may vary from pool to pool. It is imperative that the pool administrator discusses all rules before the pool begins.


Our Recommended Rules for Tiebreakers

If two or more participants correctly pick the same number of games, the person with the guess closest to the total points scored in the Monday night game would be the winner. Some people choose to play the "closest without going over rule", which I personally think is preposterous. Here is an example of why I am not an advocate of this rule:

Tom guesses 14 total points.

John guesses 64 total points.

The total points scored in the Monday night game is 63 points.

I see no logical reason why Tom should win this pool, he missed the total points scored by 49 points, while John only missed it by 1 point.


If the two participants guess the same total or if they both miss the total by the same number of points then they should both be declared winners.


Tie Game

If you read our How does Overtime Work in the NFL article you will see that it is possible for an NFL game to end in a tie. In most normal pick'em pools an NFL game ending in a tie should have no affect on the pool outcome. But, in a confidence pool where each game is weighted, a tie game could have a huge impact on the outcome of your weekly pool. So, our thoughts on this...... The object of a pick'em pool is to correctly guess the "winner" of each game. If a game ends in a tie, this means no person correctly picked the winner, therefore the game should just be ignored.


Don't forget to check out all of our Football Pools and also our new Football Square Generator, where you can create custom Football Squares with team logos, payout information and more!