Professor DW’s Football Pick’Em Challenge!

 

How To Play

Professor DW’s football Challenge is a free contest of selecting Professional Football games each week. The person who selects the most winners or wins the tiebreaker will be the winner of the week. The winner will receive a cash prize of $17. 

Professor DW will also post an entry every week and if the winner beats Professor DW they will get a $10 bonus for a total of $27 cash prize.

Tie Breaker: Each week the tie breaker will be the guess of total yardage from successful field goals for all teams. If there are 10 made field goals and say all 10 field goals were 30 yards the total would be 300. The player in the tie who guessed closest without going over will win the tie breaker.

Tie Breaker Bonus: If a player wins the top prize for the week by their tiebreaker guess and the tiebreaker guess is exact on the number of the total yardage of successful field goals then we double the prize to $34 and if the winner beats Professor DW we’ll double the bonus to $20 for a total $54 win. 

There are 18 weeks, and the winners of the 18 weeks will then get an exclusive invitation to compete in a tournament during the Professional football play-offs. 

Additionally, those who place 2nd in the weekly contest by most wins or through the tiebreaker will also win an exclusive invitation to the post season tournament. The 2nd place winner receives no weekly prize other than the invitation to compete for the Grand Prize.

Post Season Tournament Grand Prize

This year the Grand Prize is a Sports Fan Ticket Bonanza! The winner will receive 2 tickets to the Seahawks, the Kraken, Sounders, Storm, Mariners, Tacoma Rainiers, Seattle Thunderbirds and Emerald Downs. All for the 2026 seasons. The winner can also opt for a cash out prize of $750. Specific Prize details are listed in the rules.

For complete rules, read them below the weekly entry form.

Official Rules for Professor DW’s Football Challenge 2025-26

 

Eligibility and Deadlines

1. This contest is 100% free of charge and you must be at least 18 years of age to participate.
2. Employees and contractors of Eli Sports Network are eligible to participate but NOT eligible to win any weekly prizes or participate in the post-season tournament. 
3. Contestants may enter only once per week. If multiple entries are determined, then the contestant will be disqualified for that week. If a 2nd offense occurs the contestant will then be banned for the rest of the year and if qualified for the post season tournament prior to the offense, then will also be disqualified from the tournament.
4. Contestants must complete the entire contest form each week and enter it prior to the deadline to be eligible to win that week. Including first and last name, phone number, e-mail and which social media platform the contestant follows Eli Sports.
5. Deadline to enter weekly contests is 4pm Thursday afternoons for weeks 1 through 17. There is no Thursday game in week 18 so deadline to enter is 12am, midnight, Friday of week 18.  Deadline dates are:
   Week 1: Sept 4, Week 2: Sept 11, Week 3: Sept 18, Week 4: Sept 25, Week 5: Oct 2, Week 6: Oct 9, Week 7: Oct 16, Week 8: Oct 23, Week 9: Oct 30, Week 10: Nov 6, Week 11: Nov 13, Week 12: Nov 20, Week 13: Nov 27, Week 14: Dec 4, Week 15: Dec 11, Week 16: Dec 18, Week 17: Dec 25, Week 18: Jan 2.

Winning the Contest

1. To win the contest you simply must select more winning teams than anyone else in the contest that week. 
2. Ties: If there is a tie, then the contestant who guesses the closet the total yardage of all successful field goal kicks for that week will be declared the winner. For example, if there are 10 made field goals and say all 10 field goals were 30 yards the total would be 300. The player in the tie who guessed closest without going over will win the tie breaker. It’s what we call the “Price is Right rule. For example, if one player guesses 301 and the other guessed 1 the player guessing 1 would win because they didn’t go over. If both players go over, then the one who guessed closest to that week’s total would get the win.
3. Extra Points do NOT count toward successful field goals in the tie breaker.
4. Still Tied: If there is a tie for 1st in the weekly contest and both contestants have guessed the same tiebreaker number then a tie will be declared, and both will split the $17 prize money, and each will get their own $10 if they beat Prof DW. In this case the tie for 1st would take both entries to the post season tournament.
5. More than 2 winners in a week. If there are more than 2 winners after the tie breaker then all who placed will advance to the post season tournament. This means there could be more than 36 post season entries. However, that would first mean an unbreakable tie of 3 or more entries in a single week and that there are no repeat winners. 
6. Winnings: Each winner will receive a cash prize. The winner will be contacted by ESN representatives to make arrangements for the winner to pick-up their prize or provide a mailing address that ESN will mail their prize too.
7. Winners will have their name and winning selections posted each week on the Eli Sports Network. 
8. Contestants are eligible to win multiple weeks. 

Play-Off Exclusive Tournament

1. Only Weekly Winners and 2nd place finishers are eligible to advance to Professor DW’s Pro Football Post Season Tournament. Weekly Winners are limited to one entry into the post season tournament regardless of how many times they may have placed 1st or 2nd in the weekly contest. The post season tournament will host up to 36 competitors plus any tied entries during the regular season.
2. The contestants will be notified that they have qualified for the Post Season Tournament and will be sent a link to the entry form. Contestants will be notified by e-mail with the link to each round of the play-offs entries. Each week will have a TBD entry deadline based on days and times of the first kick-off.
3. Ties: there will be at least one tie breaker to determine winners. If there is a chance for a tie even with the tie-breaker, then a secondary tie breaker will be created until there is no chance for a tie.
4. Prizes: The winner will win the Grand Prize of the Ticket Bonanza of 2 tickets to the Seahawks, the Kraken, Sounders, Storm, Mariners, Tacoma Rainiers, and Emerald Downs. All for the 2026 seasons. Total value of tickets is no more than $1,500. Winner MUST take the prize as described and total amount cannot be more than $1,500. 

If winner chooses the Ticket Bonanza they will work with ESN to select 2 tickets for each team and Emerald Downs listed and stay under the $1,500 top value. Winner can select tickets to fit under the top value.

1. The winner can also opt out of the ticket bonanza for a cash out prize of $750. 
2. Winner will need to complete a W9 tax form to claim winnings. If Cash prize is chosen winner will be paid by check. Neither prize will be awarded prior to a completed W9 form received by ESN.
3. Additional prizes will be $100 for 2nd, $75 for 3rd, $50 for 4th and $25 for 5th place. Any ties after tie breaker will equally divide cash prizes. 

The Postseason Tournament: Consists of 4 rounds over 5 weeks. You will make your selection of teams as usual but there will be additional questions for you to answer each week. Such as which team will win the coin flip, or which QB will have the most passing yardage.

Each prediction or question will all be worth 1 point. There will be a total of 10 points you can earn each of the first three weeks for a total of 30 points.

Then on Super Bowl Sunday there will be 25 points available, 5 for selecting the Super Bowl Champion and 1 point for all 20 questions for a grand total of 55 points being a perfect score. Anyone can make a big run on Super Sunday if you remain in the mix through the 1st 3 weeks.

Tournament Questions

The questions have been determined for each week with a caveat that all questions prior to the week may be tweaked if for instance there is an injury and a player is no longer available and the question was which QB would throw the most TD’s in a week and that QB was injured and not playing.

Tie Breakers

The tie breaker will be predicting the total amount of points scored in all 13 postseason games. You must fill that out with your 1st entry. The Price is Right rule is in effect which is you cannot go over. The closest without going over will be declared the winner. 

In the unlikely event there is still a potential for a tie, the contestant selecting the winning team will be declared the winner. If there is still a potential tie, each affected contestant will then receive a secondary tie-breaking question that will guarantee no ties. This process will continue until that guarantee is achieved

Eligible Entries in the Tournament

Players may enter any or all of the weeks. For weeks they do not enter they get 0 points. If you miss the 1st week you will not be able to enter a tie-breaker number. So, if you end up in a tie for any of the prizes you will automatically lose the tie breaker to the player who entered a tie breaker regardless of if their guess is over or not. Deadlines to enter each week will be determined based on the 1st play-off game date and time and are to be determined.

Receiving and Forfeiture of Prizes

Contestants must provide proper address to ESN to receive their prize via certified mail. Or they must make arrangements to pick up their prize in person at the offices of the Eli Sports Network at 219 North Tower, Suite 310, Centralia, WA 98531.

If a contestant has not provided proper mailing or delivery instructions or have arranged to personally pick up their prize(s) by the following deadline then they automatically forfeit all prizes and compensation due them from winning the FREE Professor DW Football Challenge Contest.

Deadline to claim all prizes is February 28, 2026.

Judge’s Decision Final

1. ESN reserves the right to make final decisions not covered by the official rules and those decisions will be final. 
2. Contact information can be requested at paulbelisportsnetwork@gmail.com

 

 

 

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