The Tailgate

THE
TAILGATE

Two season-long football games. Six weekly picks. Zero dollars. Unlimited trash talk.

YOU 0 · RIVALS 0 — THE SEASON SETTLES IT

ONE APP · TWO TITLES

THE TWO GAMES

Each game is three picks a week with its own leaderboard, its own tiebreakers, and its own champion. Play one, play both. Most points at the end of the regular season takes the title.

🎓 COLLEGE PICK'EM

Saturdays. The original. Rooted in Idaho and its neighbors.

Regional Game

Pick the straight-up winner of any game involving an Idaho or border-state team. Boise State to Weber State, they all count.

1 PT

Ranked Underdog

Take the lower-ranked team in a Top 25 matchup. If #21 knocks off #4, that's 17 points in one swing.

RANK GAP

Against the Spread

Any game, either side, beat the line. Spreads lock Thursday at noon so nobody line-shops.

1 PT

Ties broken by underdog points, then ATS wins. Co-champions split the bragging rights, awkwardly.

🔥 NFL BURN BOOK

Sundays. Higher stakes. Every team you use turns to ash.

Survivor

One team to win, straight up. Win or lose, they're burned for the season. 32 teams, 18 weeks. Spend the Chiefs wisely.

2 PTS

Longshot

Pick an underdog to win outright and bank the spread. A +7.5 dog that shocks the world pays 8.

THE SPREAD

Lock

Your sure thing of the week. Right? One point. Wrong? Minus one, plus a week of the Water Cooler reminding you.

+1 / −1

💎 Hit all three in one week for a +2 bonus. Ties broken by longshot points, then survivor wins.

A WEEK AT THE TAILGATE

Make your picks

Six picks, ninety seconds, phone-friendly. NFL lines lock Wednesday at noon, college lines Thursday. Forgot? We'll email you before it's too late.

Kickoff means locked

Change your mind all week, but the moment a game kicks off, that pick is frozen. That's also when everyone else's picks are revealed. No copying homework.

Watch it play out

Live scores flow in on game day with an "on track / in trouble" read for every pick. Scoring is automatic. No spreadsheet, no arguments. Well, fewer arguments.

Face the recap

The weekly recap email names the winners, the losers, and the new badge owners. Then the Water Cooler opens for business.

THE HARDWARE

The championship takes eighteen weeks. Badges you can win on any given Saturday. Thirteen of them, earned once and kept forever, from gimmes to one that may never be seen.

🏈

OPENING KICKOFF

Save your first pick. Welcome to The Tailgate.

Common

🗡️

GIANT SLAYER

Win a Ranked Underdog worth 12 or more points.

Uncommon

🚀

MOON SHOT

Win a Longshot worth 7 or more points.

Uncommon

🧊

ICE COLD

Win your Lock five weeks in a row.

Rare

💔

BAD BEAT

Lose an Against the Spread pick by a single point or less. Condolences.

Uncommon

🧹

CLEAN SWEEP

Win all six picks across both games in the same week.

Legendary

…plus seven more, including a few nobody has figured out how to earn yet.

THE FINE PRINT

No entry fee, no wagering, no payouts. The only prize is the right to be insufferable until next September.

Strictly invite-only. Know the commissioner? You're in. Join any week of the season; your points start counting the week you do.

Everyone plays under an assigned alias. You sign up, the football gods hand you a legend's name, and that's who you are now. Reveal your real identity in the Locker Room, or don't. Incognito is the norm here.

The commissioner's ruling is final. Bribery is technically encouraged but has never once worked.

Rule changes apply the following week, never retroactively. Postponed games void the pick. Pushes are nobody's fault.

Want every clause? The full rulebook has you covered.

🌭 The Domain Fund

thetailgate.football doesn't pay for itself. Chip in a buck or two and keep the lights on.

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