MOCKSLATE

Bye Board — Official Rules

Rules version: games-bye-board-2027.v1-2026-07-16

Bye Board — Contest Official Rules — effective July 16, 2026

Sponsor: Cody Blaze Enterprises LLC d/b/a MockSlate. MockSlate is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or associated with the National Football League, any NFL team, or any player. All league and team names are used for descriptive reference only.

Eligibility: Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and D.C. who are 18 years of age or older at time of entry. Employees, officers, and directors of Sponsor, and their immediate family members (spouse, parent, child, sibling) and household members, are not eligible. Void where prohibited or restricted by law.

Entry Period: Entries open February 2027 when the board freezes and must be saved and locked by the officially announced 2027 schedule-release time ("Entry Deadline"). Sponsor's server clock is the official timekeeper.

Judging and Tiebreakers: Entries scored per the published Scoring Rubric (below). In the event of a tie: the tiebreakers published in the Complete Rules below apply; if still tied, the earliest-submitted entry wins. Sponsor's scoring decisions are final and binding. The Scoring Rubric and Tiebreakers are frozen at the Entry Deadline and will not be changed thereafter.

General Conditions: Sponsor reserves the right to cancel, suspend, or modify the Contest if fraud, technical failure, or any other factor beyond Sponsor's reasonable control impairs the integrity of the Contest, as determined by Sponsor in its sole discretion. Sponsor may disqualify any entrant it believes has tampered with entry, scoring, or the Service.

Privacy: Information submitted is handled per the MockSlate Privacy Policy at mockslate.com/privacy.

Disputes and Governing Law: All disputes are governed by these Rules and the MockSlate Terms of Service (including the arbitration and class-waiver provisions), and by the laws of the State of Florida without regard to conflict-of-law principles.

Entry

  • Pro-only game — leaderboard glory, no prize. Anyone can read this page and the board; playing requires MockSlate Pro. There is no cash award of any kind.
  • Entrants must be 18 or older with a MockSlate account. One entry per person.
  • The board opens when the 2027 selectable weeks are posted (February 2027) and locks at the officially announced schedule-release time. Change any assignment freely until then; after the lock your board rides.
  • The board freezes when entries open — the selectable weeks, scoring, void rule, and tiebreak wording never change once the first entry is accepted.

How to play & scoring

  • Assign each of the 32 teams a bye week, plus the numeric tiebreaker. A partial board can’t be submitted.
  • The selectable weeks are only the weeks that held byes in the prior season: Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8, Week 9, Week 10, Week 11, Week 13, Week 14 (from the completed 2026 slate; refreshed each season).
  • +1 per team whose bye week you match exactly.
  • +3 bonus per division where you get all four teams correct. Maximum score: 32 + 24 = 56.
  • The whole board grades instantly on release day against the released schedule — byes are read straight from it.
  • Tiebreak: how many teams will share the single most-used bye week on the 2027 schedule? The number of teams whose bye falls in whichever week holds the most byes on the released schedule (2026's answer: 6, in Week 11). Derived from the released schedule at grading — closest entry wins ties; if still tied, the earliest-submitted entry wins.

The void rule

If the NFL schedules any bye outside the offered weeks (rare), picks for the affected teams are voided — removed from everyone’s denominator rather than auto-failed: nobody loses to an option they weren’t offered. A division containing any voided team is ineligible for its +3 bonus, with the maximum reduced accordingly for everyone — you can’t “get all four correct” when one was unanswerable.

Strategy note

Byes aren’t random: they cluster after international trips, avoid the late season, and follow broadcast logic. Last season’s shape (heaviest week: 6 teams) is the anchor — and the division sweep is the separator: one +3 bonus outweighs three individual hits.

MockSlate's prize games are free-to-enter skill contests — no purchase necessary. Pro-exclusive games are prize-free and carry no cash award. Not affiliated with the NFL or any team.