🏈 Welcome to The Tailgate

The Tailgate is an invite-only football hangout. It runs two season-long games: College Pick'em and the NFL Burn Book. Both are free, no money and no wagering, bragging rights only. Play one or play both, they have separate standings and separate champions.

How the site works

  • Make your picks on each game's My Picks page. You get three picks per week, per game. Pick a game from the dropdown, pick your team, and save.
  • Change your mind freely until kickoff. The moment a game kicks off, the pick riding on it is locked for good.
  • Other players' picks are hidden until their game kicks off, so nobody can copy your homework. After kickoff, everything shows on the Weekly Results page.
  • Scoring is automatic. Results and points update from live data within about an hour of games finishing. The commissioner has final say on anything weird (postponements, data errors, disputes).
  • Miss a week? No penalty, you just score zero for the picks you didn't make. Jump back in any time.
  • Blank category? If a category has no qualifying games in a week, it is skipped for everyone.
  • 🥸 Everyone plays under an alias. At signup you're assigned the name of a football legend (Dick Butkus, Red Grange, take what you get). Nobody's real identity shows unless they reveal it themselves in the Locker Room, so playing incognito is the norm, not a tell. The commissioner sees real names for invitations, but never who owns which alias. Even the commissioner plays blind.
  • 🎭 Opening-weeks blackout. Until every week 1 game is final, everyone else appears only as a numbered Mystery Legend. Aliases unveil for the whole league at once when week 1 is settled, so nobody can figure out who's who by watching signups trickle in.
  • 💬 The Water Cooler is the place for trash talk and weekly debriefs. Every Weekly Results page has a "Discuss this week" button that jumps straight to that week's thread.
  • 🏆 The Trophy Case tracks badges you earn along the way, from easy ones to a few that may never be seen. Rarer badges are worth more on the badge leaderboard. Badges are their own side race and don't affect season standings.

🎓 College Pick'em

Three picks a week, each from its own pool of games.

1. Regional Game (1 point)

Pick the straight-up winner of any game involving a Division I team from Idaho or a bordering state (Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, Washington). You can pick either side of a qualifying game. Margin doesn't matter.

2. Ranked Underdog (points = rank difference)

Pick any game where both teams are in that week's AP Top 25. You must take the lower-ranked team. If your underdog wins outright, you earn the difference between the two rankings. Example: #21 beats #4, you earn 17 points. If either team is unranked by kickoff or you somehow pick the favorite, the pick is void.

3. Against the Spread (1 point)

Pick any game with a published point spread and choose the team that will cover it. Lines lock Thursday at noon each week, and the locked number is the one that counts. If the final margin lands exactly on the spread, it's a push and the pick is void.

Champion and tiebreakers

Most total points over the regular season wins. Ties break by (1) most Ranked Underdog points, (2) most correct ATS picks, (3) co-champions share the title.

🔥 NFL Burn Book

Three picks a week with three different flavors of risk. NFL lines lock Wednesday at noon, before Thursday Night Football.

1. Survivor (2 points)

Pick one team to win straight up. Here's the catch: once you use a team, it's burned for the rest of the season, win or lose. There are 32 teams and 18 weeks, so spend the good ones wisely. Do you burn the Chiefs on a cupcake matchup in September, or save them for when you're desperate in December?

2. Longshot (points = the spread)

Pick any underdog to win outright. If they pull the upset, you earn the locked spread rounded to the nearest whole number (minimum 1). A +7.5 dog that wins pays 8 points. Favorites are not valid longshots, that's the whole point.

3. Lock (+1 or −1)

Your sure thing of the week, straight up. Win and you get 1 point. Lose and you lose a point. Choose like your reputation depends on it, because it does.

💎 Perfect week (+2 bonus)

Hit all three picks in the same week (survivor wins, longshot lands, lock holds) and you earn a +2 bonus on top.

Champion and tiebreakers

Most total points over the 18-week regular season wins. Ties break by (1) most Longshot points, (2) most survivor wins, (3) co-champions share the title.

House rules

  • Open to anyone with an invitation. New players can join mid-season and earn points from that week forward.
  • Postponed or cancelled games void the pick, no penalty.
  • The commissioner has final say on disputed or ambiguous picks.
  • Rule changes take effect the following week, never retroactively.

Ready to play? Check your inbox for an invitation, or log in if you already have an account.