How to play NFL Survivor
NFL Survivor is a popular format because the rules are simple, the pressure builds each week, and one wrong pick can change everything.
Pick Weekly
Choose one team each week that you think will win. Plan carefully, as you can only choose a team once over the course of the season.
Stay Alive
If your team wins, you survive and move on. If your team loses, your entry is eliminated, which makes every week feel like a playoff game.
Outlast Everyone
Keep surviving while the rest of the pool gets knocked out. Make it through the season and finish as the last entry standing to win your pool.
NFL Survivor Pool Examples
See the features that make running an NFL Survivor pool online easy for commissioners and fun for players.
Make Picks from Any Device
Players can submit their NFL Survivor picks from anywhere, whether they’re at work, at home, or on the go. The picks page is optimized for mobile devices and works just as smoothly on desktop and tablet.
Follow the Survivor Grid
The Results page gives your group a clear survivor grid showing which team each entry used, who advanced, and who was eliminated. It makes it easy to follow the weekly drama of your knockout pool as the field gets smaller.
Post Updates and Talk Trash
Every pool includes a private message board where members can post updates, talk trash, and keep the conversation going all season long. It gives your group one place to stay connected beyond just making picks.
Why run your NFL Survivor pool online?
Gridiron Games automates the busywork so your pool can focus on making picks, sweating results, and enjoying the season.
Chasing down players every week and hoping everyone sends their picks in on time.
Players make their own picks online, from any device, before the deadline.
Updating scores by hand, double-checking formulas, and fixing mistakes after games.
Weekly results and season-long standings update automatically as games finish.
Keeping track of last-minute changes and trying to remember which version was final.
Players submit picks before the deadline, commissioners manage changes when needed.
Relying on group texts, email chains, and side conversations to keep everyone updated.
Use the built-in message board and commissioner tools to keep everyone informed.
Keeping records and rebuilding the pool from scratch again next season.
Roll your pool into the next season without any additional setup.
Frequently Asked Questions
An NFL Survivor pool is a football pool where players pick one team to win each week from the weekly NFL schedule. If your team wins, your entry stays alive. If your team loses, or the game ends in a tie, your entry is eliminated.
Yes. NFL Survivor pool, NFL knockout pool, NFL suicide pool, survival pool, and survivor league football are commonly used to describe the same basic format. Different groups may use different names, but the idea is the same: keep surviving each week until only one entry remains.
Learning how to play NFL Survivor is easy. Each week, players pick one team they believe will win. If the pick is correct, the entry advances. If the pick is wrong, that entry is eliminated from the pool.
On Gridiron Games, commissioners can customize their survivor pool settings to match their preferred rules, including multiple entries, flexible pick deadlines, and whether the pool picks straight up or against the spread.
We use a pay-as-you-go pricing model that allows pools to pay for only the entries they need. To determine the cost of running your pool on the site, check out our pricing calculator. The hosting fee covers the entire season.
For NFL Survivor pools, entries are season-long. As an example, if you have 10 players each submitting one entry for the season, you only need to purchase 10 entries.
Only the pool commissioner is responsible for paying the hosting fee. Once the commissioner has purchased entries, other players can participate in the pool for free without needing to pay any additional fees through the site.
This depends on your pool’s settings. For NFL Survivor pools, we offer the following pick deadlines:
- Start of Week: Weekly picks are due by the first game of each week.
- Sunday at 1pm ET: Weekly picks are due by Sunday at 1pm ET. If selecting a team from a game that occurs before Sunday at 1pm ET, picks are due by kickoff of that game.
Please note: If using the Sunday deadline, players can still pick teams from earlier games however their pick will be due by kickoff of that game and will be locked after the game begins.
Yes. If your NFL Survivor pool is configured to allow multiple entries, players can submit them from the Picks page. After submitting the first entry, a green button becomes available that allows players to create a new entry, and a dropdown lets them switch between entries throughout the season.
If all remaining players are eliminated in the same week, the system will prompt the commissioner to decide whether the pool should end or continue. If the commissioner ends the pool, multiple winners can be crowned. If the commissioner continues the pool, the eliminated picks will be marked as a mulligan and those entries can keep playing in future weeks.
At the moment, the site does not have built-in tiebreakers for NFL Survivor pools because different groups prefer different rules. In cases where multiple entries make it to the end, many pools use the fewest incorrect picks as the first tiebreaker, then apply additional rules such as longest correct streak if needed.