HOW TO RUN A LAST MAN STANDING POOL
Everything you need to set up and run an NFL Last Man Standing pool for the 2026 season — from picking house rules to crowning a champion in Week 18.
WHY RUN A LAST MAN STANDING POOL?
Last Man Standing — a survivor pool, in NFL terms — is the simplest season-long game there is: every week, each player picks one team to win, straight up, no spread. Win and you survive. Lose and you're out. Each team can only be used once, and the last player standing takes the pot. One rule sheet, 18 weeks of drama.
It's also the game most likely to already exist in your office — run off a spreadsheet by someone who spends every Saturday chasing picks by text and every Tuesday morning typing in results. Being the commissioner on FootballPools means keeping the fun part (the eliminations, the trash talk, the pot) and deleting the admin: deadlines enforce themselves, results score themselves, and reminders send themselves.
The strategy is all in the timing. With 32 teams and 18weeks you can never run out of picks, so nobody is rationing a slate to the finish — the question is only when to spend a team you'll want back in December. Setup takes less than five minutes.
Step 1: Choose Your House Rules
Every survivor group argues about the same four rules. FootballPools makes each one a pool option you set at creation, so the rules are on the record before a snap is played — no mid-season disputes.
Ties: Eliminate or Survive?
Default: a tie eliminates. The strict reading of "pick a team to win" — a tie is not a win. NFL ties are rare enough that most pools never see one, which is exactly why it's worth settling in advance instead of arguing about it on a Sunday night.
Option: ties survive. A friendlier game where only a loss knocks you out. Costs nothing in most seasons and saves you a ruling in the one where it matters.
When Everyone Falls Together
A bad week can wipe out the whole remaining field. You choose in advance how that pays: a valid pick beats no pick — the members who actually made a pick that week outrank anyone who missed the deadline — or co-champions, where everyone who fell together shares the pot evenly.
Either way nobody is eliminated retroactively. The rule you picked is shown in Pool Info all season, so it's never a surprise.
Mid-Season Joining
Default: on.New players can join at any week of the season and start picking from the current one. They're only responsible from the week they join — earlier weeks don't count against them and can't eliminate them. Great for pools that grow by word of mouth after the season starts.
Turn it off for a strict "everyone starts at Week 1" pool where the whole field faces identical odds.
Rebuys
Default: off.When enabled, an eliminated player can pay back into the pot and re-enter alive from the next open week. Their used-team history carries over, so there's no fresh slate — the pot grows and the field stays bigger for longer.
Decide up front whether rebuys are unlimited or one-per-player — that part is your call as commissioner, so put it in the pool description.
Not sure how the game itself works? Read the full Last Man Standing rules →
Step 2: Set the Entry Fee & Track Payments
Entry fees are optional — some pools play for bragging rights. But survivor is traditionally a pot game, and a season-long pot is exactly the kind of money that needs proper bookkeeping. The split of responsibilities is simple: the commissioner holds the money, FootballPools tracks it.
Setting the Entry Fee
When creating the pool (or later in Pool Settings), enter the fee and list how people should pay you — Venmo handle, Zelle email, Cash App tag, PayPal link, or "cash at the office." Members see the fee and payment handles when they join. Survivor uses a single one-time buy-in for the season. FootballPools never collects, holds, or pays out entry fees.
Payment Tracking
The built-in payment tracker shows who's paid and who's stalling. Mark members paid as the money comes in, and send a one-click email reminder to anyone who hasn't. If you allow rebuys, those fees run through the same Finances tab, so the pot total stays visible to the whole pool all season.
FootballPools Hosting Fees
Hosting fees are paid by the commissioner, not by individual members. Most pools fold it into the entry fee.
Step 3: Invite Your Group
Once the pool is created, share the invite code or link. Getting a survivor field together is the easiest sell in football — one pick a week is a commitment anyone can make.
Group chat blast
Drop the link in the group chat with the pitch: "One pick a week, win or you're out, last one standing takes the pot. Week 1 opens September 9, 2026."
Lead with the house rules
Say up front whether ties eliminate, whether there are rebuys, and what the entry fee is. Groups join faster when the rules are already settled.
Target 10-40 players
Survivor needs a field to whittle down. Ten players makes a good bar pool; thirty makes an office-wide event with eliminations worth announcing.
Set a join deadline — but don't sweat it
Ask people to join before Week 1 for the full 18-week experience. With mid-season joining on (the default), stragglers can still enter at any week.
Step 4: The Season Rhythm
Once the season starts, every week runs the same loop — and almost none of it involves you:
Picks lock game by game
Each game locks at its own kickoff, or when the Sunday afternoon slate begins — whichever comes first. So a Thursday team has to be picked before Thursday night, while Sunday and Monday teams all lock together when the Sunday slate starts. Nobody picks Monday night after watching Sunday.
Picks reveal as they lock
A pick becomes public the moment its own game locks, so the Thursday takes are visible while everyone's Sunday picks are still hidden. Waiting until the last minute never buys anyone a look at the room.
Two automatic reminders
FootballPools sends a day-before nudge and a last-call reminder before every deadline — email and push — to every alive player who hasn't picked. Eliminated players are never nagged.
Live scoring
Results flow in from live NFL data. Survivals and eliminations are scored automatically once every game in the week is final — no Tuesday-morning data entry, no arguments about what time a text arrived.
Byes take teams off the board
A team on its bye has no game, so it simply isn't on the pick screen that week. Nobody can accidentally burn a team that wasn't playing.
Missed pick = elimination
A player who's alive with no pick when the week's last game locks is out, same as a loss. The reminders exist so this stays rare, and you can switch on auto-picks as a safety net.
Postponed game = void
If a player's team doesn't play — postponement, cancellation — the pick is voided: they survive and the team returns to their slate. Handled automatically, no commissioner ruling.
Your actual weekly job: post the carnage in the group chat. When a division leader loses at home to a last-place team and six people go out at once, that's the moment the pool exists for.
Step 5: Know the Endgame
Every survivor pool ends one of three ways, and FootballPools scores all three automatically — worth explaining to your group up front so nobody is surprised in January:
1. Last One Standing
The classic finish: everyone else has been eliminated and one survivor remains. They're crowned champion the moment the deciding week completes, and they take the pot.
2. Everyone Falls the Same Week
If every remaining player goes out in the same week, nobody is eliminated retroactively — the pool's tie rule decides. By default a member who made a valid pick beats one who made none; the commissioner can instead have everyone who fell together share the pot as co-champions.
3. Season Ends With Multiple Survivors
If Week 18completes with two or more players still alive, they're co-champions and split the pot. Any further tiebreak you want to apply is yours to agree with the group and settle at the payout.
In every case the payout itself is yours to make — FootballPools shows who won and tracks what's in the pot, and you settle up the same way you collected.
Timeline: The 2026 Season
Frequently Asked Questions
READY TO RUN YOUR POOL?
Set your house rules, share the code, and let FootballPools run the boring bits for all 18 weeks.