NFL survivor pool guide

A survivor pool, also called an eliminator or knockout pool, asks one question each week: which NFL team will win? Pick right and you move on. Pick wrong and you're out. On Covers Only it's a free survivor pool with no entry fee and no prize money, just bragging rights.

The rules

1. Pick one NFL team each week to win its game outright. There's no point spread; the team just has to win.
2. You can use each team only once all season.
3. If your team loses, you're eliminated. A tie counts as a win.
4. Your pick must be in before that team's game kicks off. Missing a week counts as a loss.
5. The last member standing wins the pool.

The NFL regular season runs 18 weeks with 32 teams, so a member who lasts all season will use 18 different teams. That one rule, never reusing a team, is what turns an easy early pick into a hard late one.

Single or double elimination

In a single-elimination pool, one loss and you're out. Double elimination gives each member a mulligan: the first loss is forgiven and the second one eliminates you. Double elimination suits groups that want fewer people knocked out in the first few weeks, when upsets are hardest to see coming. The commissioner chooses one when creating the league.

When more than one member survives

If several members are still alive when the season ends, the commissioner can turn on a tiebreaker. It compares the biggest underdog each member picked, then the next-biggest, and so on down their picks, rewarding whoever survived with the bolder choices. Without the tiebreaker, everyone still standing is named co-champion.

Strategy basics

• Plan ahead. Look at the schedule several weeks out before you use a strong team. A team that is a big favorite this week may be an even bigger one later, when you have fewer good options left.
• Save the best teams. Late-season weeks are hardest because the top teams are often already used. Holding one or two strong teams for December gives you somewhere safe to go.
• Be careful with division games. Division rivals play twice a year and know each other well, so those games tend to be closer than the standings suggest.
• Home teams have an edge. All else equal, a strong team playing at home is a safer choice than the same team on the road.
• Think about the rest of your league. In a big pool, if most members pick the same favorite and it loses, everyone else gains. A slightly less popular but still solid pick can pay off.

Moving your pool mid-season

Already running a survivor pool somewhere else this season? Create an NFL Survivor league, choose "Moving From Another Platform", and set the season dates to when your pool actually started. After the league is created, you and every member who joins enter the team picked in each past week, so lives and eliminations carry over exactly.

Setting one up

1. Create a free account.
2. Create a league and choose NFL Survivor.
3. Name it, choose single or double elimination, and set your season dates.
4. Share the invite code or send email invites. Leagues are private by default; you can open yours to the public instead.

Picks are graded automatically once games finish, and the standings show who is still alive. When you make a pick, the teams you've already used are marked so you can't take one twice.