2026-27 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 $25. 

Tie Breaker: Each week the tie breaker will be the guess of the total number of enforced penalties in all games. The “Price is Right” rule is in effect so you can’t go over. For example if the total penalties for the week is 85 and you guess 86 and the person you’re tied with guessed 10, they win because they didn’t go over. If all those who tied are all over then the closest to the actual number wins.

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 penalties we will double the winnings to $50.

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 (Grand Prize TBD but will be worth a minimum of $500.)

Professor DW will also post an entry every week and this year the Professor will be his own contestant. In other words if he wins a week no $25 prize will be given out. Additionally, he will block a Post Season Tournament entry if he wins or places 2nd.

Once you win a week or place 2nd to qualify for the post season tournament you can and will still want to keep playing. First, you can win as many weeks as you can to collect the weekly cash prize. But you can only qualify once for the post season tournament. There are potentially 36 total entries for the post season tournament. But if you win or place 2nd more than once you will block someone from getting in which reduces the total field and gives you a better chance of winning the Grand Prize.

Post Season Tournament Grand Prize

This year the Grand Prize is still to be determined. As the new website leadership takes over we’re still working on the final prize but did not want to cancel Prof DW and have plans to continue the Football Challenge and more as we get everything launched. The Grand Prize will be a minimum $500 value and details will be shared when they are finalized.

For complete rules and weekly winners and qualifiers read them below the weekly entry form.

 

 

Official Rules for Professor DW’s Football Challenge 2026-27

 

Eligibility and Deadlines

1. This contest is 100% free of charge and you must be at least 18 years of age to participate.
2. Fulltime employees and contractors of West 42 Sports are eligible to participate but NOT eligible to win any weekly prizes or participate in the post-season tournament. Gig workers that cover only High School sports for West 42 Sports are eligible to play.
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 West 42 Sports.
5. Deadline to enter weekly contests is as follows:
   Week 1 Wednesday, September 9, 2026 at 4pm (Pacific time)
   Weeks 2-17 4pm (Pacific Time on each Thursday from September 17-December 31, 2026.
   Week 18 TBD the schedule is flexed at this time but will be 1 hour prior to kick-off of the 1st game(s) for that week. Typically they have been on a Saturday but at this time there is no official day or time listed.

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 closest to the total number of enforced penalties for all games for that week. For example, if there are 16 games and the total number of penalties enforced against both teams in each game total 95 that is the correct answer. The “Price is Right” rule is in effect which means if you go over, any guess that is less than the total number is the winner. If all guesses are under then the one closest to the actual number is the winner. If all guesses are over then the closest to the actual number is the winner.
3. 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 $25 prize money. In this case the tie for 1st would take both entries to the post season tournament.
4. 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. 
5. Winnings: Each winner will receive a cash prize. The winner will be contacted by a West 42 Sports representative to make arrangements for the winner to pick-up their prize or provide a mailing address that West 42 Sports will mail their prize to.
6. Winners will have their name and winning selections posted each week on the West 42 Sports website. 
7. 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 that is still to be determined and is a minimum of $500 value. Full details will be disclosed and this portion of the rules will be updated when the Post Season prize package is confirmed.
5. The winner of the Grand Prize will need to complete a W9 form and is solely responsible for any and all taxes.

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 changed 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 a proper address to West 42 Sports to receive their prize via certified mail. Or they must make arrangements to pick up their prize in person.

If a contestant has not provided proper mailing or delivery instructions or has 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.

The deadline to claim all prizes is February 28, 2027.

Judge’s Decision Final

1. West 42 Sports reserves the right to make final decisions not covered by the official rules and those decisions will be final. 

Weekly Winners (Both Qualify for Postseason Tournament)

Week 1
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Week 2
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Week 3
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Week 4
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Week 5
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Week 6
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Week 7
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Week 8
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Week 9
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Week 10
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Week 11
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Week 12
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Week 13
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Week 14
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Week 15
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Week 16
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Week 17
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Week 18
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