Against The Spread Rules
Everything you need to know before you rank your first NFL picks.
Quick Navigation
1. How It Works
Each NFL week, pick a team to cover the spread. Depending on how the competition is set up, you'll either pick every game in the week, or choose up to a maximum the admin has set (bounded by however many games are actually on that week — a bye week may offer fewer than the maximum). For every pick you make, assign it a confidence rank — rank 1 is your most confident pick, and each rank can only be used once per week, so ranking one game 1 moves anything else ranked 1 off that game.
You don't have to fill every available rank — but the more you rank, the more points you can score, and leaving ranks unfilled can cost you a bonus week (see section 5).
2. How the Spread Is Set
The spread for each game isn't fixed the moment the schedule is announced — it's picked up from the data feed as it becomes available, then locked in:
- We check for spreads every hour. For Week 1, that hourly check starts on the Monday before Week 1 kickoff. For every week after that, it starts as soon as the last game of the previous gameweek finishes.
- The first spread found for a game becomes its spread for that gameweek. Once a number is captured, it's locked in for scoring and won't change again — even if the real-world market spread keeps moving between then and kickoff.
Because of this, the spread you see and pick against here can end up slightly different from a live sportsbook line closer to kickoff. That's expected — our number is captured once, early, and then frozen rather than tracking the market in real time.
3. Points & Scoring
Each confidence rank is worth a number of points if your pick covers the spread — higher ranks are worth more. By default the curve runs:
- Rank 1 — 10 points
- Rank 2 — 8 points
- Rank 3 — 6 points
- Rank 4 — 5 points
- Rank 5 — 4 points
- Rank 6 — 3 points
- Rank 7 — 2 points
- Rank 8 — 1 point
Your competition admin can set different point values for each rank, and change how many ranks there are (see section 1) — check your competition's own Rules tab for its exact, currently active curve. A pick that covers the spread scores its full rank value. A pick that pushes (lands exactly on the spread) scores half its rank value. A pick that misses scores nothing. An auto-assigned pick (see section 4) always scores at half value, win or push. Points are only awarded once a game is final.
4. Pick Deadlines
Picks for the week lock 30 minutes before the earliest kickoff of that week (or a custom deadline set by your competition admin) — once that passes, no new picks can be added for the week.
Within the week, an individual game locks 30 minutes before its own kickoff too. This matters for early-week games like Thursday Night Football: you can still add or change picks on the rest of the week's games after Thursday's game has locked, but that one game itself is no longer pickable.
5. Bonus Weeks
A competition can independently switch on a perfect-week bonus and a duck-egg penalty, each with its own point value set by the admin. If you fill every available rank in a week, you're eligible once every game is final:
- Perfect week: every one of your picks covers — you get the configured bonus (by default 11 points).
- Duck egg: every one of your picks misses — you get the configured penalty (by default −11 points).
Weeks where you didn't fill every rank aren't eligible for either. Pushes don't break a perfect week or a duck egg on their own, and either bonus can be turned off entirely for a given competition.
6. Double Week Selection
If your competition has double week switched on, you can choose one upcoming week to double, once per competition. Every point you score that week — from your ranked picks and any bonus week — is added again as a bonus, effectively doubling your total for that week.
You can change which week is your double at any time, right up until your currently-selected double week itself locks. Once that week locks, your double is set for the season. Some competitions disable double week entirely — check your competition's Rules tab to see if it's available to you.
7. Head-to-Head Challenges
Any two members of the same competition can challenge each other to a side bet with a stakes multiplier they agree on. Once accepted, a head-to-head challenge scores independently of the main leaderboard: for every graded pick either of you made, the app works out how far your pick was above or below the spread, adds that up across the season, and multiplies the result by the challenge's multiplier.
You can only have one open challenge (pending or accepted) against the same opponent at a time. A challenge can be declined instead of accepted, in which case it doesn't score.
8. Postponed & Rescheduled Games
A pick only scores once its game is officially final. If a game you've picked is postponed or rescheduled, that pick simply sits ungraded — it isn't removed and doesn't cost you anything — and will be graded automatically once the game is played and its result is confirmed.
9. Winning
Against The Spread runs as a season-long leaderboard, not a weekly knockout. Your total is the sum of every point you've scored across all weeks, plus any bonus weeks and your double week bonus. Whoever has the highest total when the season ends wins the competition.
10. Settings Your Competition Admin Controls
Every Against The Spread competition is configured individually by whoever creates it. Before you join, check the competition's own Rules tab for:
- Whether you pick every game each week, or up to a maximum — and what that maximum is
- The points value for each confidence rank
- Whether the perfect-week bonus and duck-egg penalty are enabled, and their point values
- Whether double week selection is available
- Custom pick deadlines for individual weeks (overriding the default 30-minutes-before-kickoff rule)
- Entry fee and prize pool (or whether it's free to play)
- Whether the competition is public or invite-only, and whether it needs a password
Scoring changes apply from the next ungraded week onward — they don't retroactively change points you've already scored.
11. What a Competition Admin Can Do
The person who created your competition (its admin/owner) can:
- Rename the competition and toggle whether it's publicly listed
- Send email invites, and share the invite code or invite link
- Set the pick-count mode, the points curve, the bonus/penalty amounts, and double week availability
- Set or clear a custom pick deadline for a given week
- Mark a player's entry as paid or unpaid, for their own bookkeeping
- Grade or re-grade a week (or the whole season) once games are final
- View and, if needed, correct any player's picks for a week
- Remove a player from the competition
12. What a Competition Admin Cannot Do
To keep every competition fair, a competition admin does not have the ability to:
- See what any other player has ranked before that week locks
- Manually award or remove a bonus week, double week bonus, or head-to-head result
- Change the spread, score, or final status of an NFL game — that data comes from the league feed
Platform staff can intervene in exceptional cases — for example correcting a fixture data error — but this is a platform-level safeguard, not something available to competition admins themselves.
13. Joining a Competition
You can join a competition using its invite code, invite link, or by finding it in the public listings — right up until the deadline for its first week passes. Once that deadline has gone, the competition is closed to new entrants.
Rules apply to Against The Spread competitions. See your competition's own Rules tab for its specific configuration.
Back to How to Play