2026 College Football Tier Challenge
Draft ten teams — one from each of ten tiers. A win by a tier 1 team is worth 1 point. A win by a tier 10 team is worth 10. Every tier is worth about the same over a season, so all ten picks matter.
first kickoff of week 1
Scoring
| Event | Points |
|---|---|
| Regular-season win | Equal to the team's tier — tier 3 win = 3 pts, tier 10 win = 10 pts |
| Regular-season loss | −1, every tier |
| Beating the projected win total | +5, once per team, the week it happens. Every team's target is exactly one win above its projection — see Teams & Tiers |
| Weekly captain | That team's points for the week are doubled |
| Bowl win | +3 |
| Playoff berth | +18 (seeds 1–4), +15 (5–8), +12 (9–12) |
| Playoff advancement | +6 / +10 / +13 / +18 per round survived |
The captain
Each week you name one of your ten teams captain and their points for that week double. The pick locks at that week's first kickoff and cannot be changed after. Over a season, captaining well is worth roughly 13–28% of your total — enough to matter, not enough to override your draft.
Why tiers
Tiers are set in August from each team's projected strength, then boundaries are chosen so every tier is worth about the same expected points. Tier 1 holds the three best teams in the country; tier 10 holds twenty-six teams nobody expects much from. Picking the right team inside each tier is the whole game — and with 11 billion possible rosters, nobody else will have yours.