Survivor pool tie rules: what happens if your team ties?
Survivor pools have one rule everyone knows: your team has to win. But what if your team doesn’t win and doesn’t lose?
Ties are rare, but they’re not extinct. On 11 October 2026, the Giants and Commanders finished 27–27 after Washington let the clock run out in overtime while sitting in field-goal range. It was the first tie of the season. Every survivor pool with an entry on either team had to decide on the spot whether that entry was still alive. The pools that had a rule written down moved on. The rest had an argument.
When can a tie actually happen?
- Pro football regular season: yes. A game still tied after the 10-minute overtime period goes in the books as a tie. It doesn’t happen every season, but as Giants–Commanders showed, it happens.
- Pro football playoffs: no. Playoff games keep playing overtime periods until someone wins.
- College football: no. College overtime has continued until there’s a winner since 1996, in the regular season and the playoff.
So if you’re running a playoff survivor pool, pro or college, you don’t need a tie rule. If you’re running a full-season pro football pool, you do.
The two common tie rules
1. A tie is a loss. You needed a win, and you didn’t get one. This is the most common default and the strictest. It keeps “pick a winner” literal.
2. A tie is a survive. You didn’t lose, so you stay alive, and you’ve still used the team. This is the friendliest option, and it’s popular in casual pools where nobody wants to be knocked out by overtime.
If your pool uses extra lives, “a tie is a loss” already gives you the middle ground: the entry loses a life and keeps going.
| Rule | Entry survives? | Team counts as used? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tie = loss | No (or loses a life, if your pool has lives) | Yes | Strict, traditional pools |
| Tie = survive | Yes | Yes | Casual and office pools |
Two related questions to settle at the same time
- What if the game is postponed or cancelled? Decide whether the pick carries over to the rescheduled game, or whether the entry gets to re-pick.
- What if everyone picked the team that tied? If ties are losses, a tie can wipe out the whole pool. See what happens if everyone loses.
Pick it before kickoff, not after
Like every survivor edge case, the right answer is the one you wrote down in advance. In Still Standing’s full-season pools, coming for 2027, you choose your tie rule during setup, players see it in plain English on the rules page, and any change goes in the change log.
Playoff games can’t end in a tie, so the playoff pools don’t need a tie rule. They do need a way to pick one winner when several entries survive, and that’s live now: see survivor pool tiebreakers.
The full-season engine already runs real pro and college pools this season. One email when it opens to every commissioner, well before kickoff. Nothing else.
- Pick winners or losers, FBS or FCS, conference limits, a cap on favorites
- Bonus weeks, extra picks by week, late entry, always/never-allowed teams
- “Will these rules hold up?” — a simulation of how long your pool lasts under real odds
Something unclear, or a rule you’d like us to add? Send us feedback.