NFL 2026 — NFL Confidence Pools

NFL Confidence Pools

An NFL Confidence pool asks for two decisions on every game: who wins each game (or, if you're running an ATS Confidence Pool, who will cover the spread in each game), and how confident you are in your selections. Each week an entrant picks every game on the slate and then ranks those picks in order of your confidence level. Get a pick right and you earn the weight you assigned it. Get it wrong and you earn nothing.

That second decision is what separates Confidence from a straight pick'em pool. Two entrants can predicet identical winners for all 16 NFL games in a week but finish far apart in the weekly standings based purely on how they ordered their selections, which means a good week comes from correctly identifying which games are actually safe — not just from picking more winners than anyone else.

ALA runs Confidence pools straight-up or against the spread, with optional tracking for weekly prizes and tiered buy-ins.

How to set up a NFL Confidence pool

1. Choose straight-up or against the spreadPicking straight-up winners is the traditional confidence pool format. Against the spread makes the confidence ranking harder and flattens the advantage of simply knowing which teams are good.
2. Set your weekly lock timesConfigure whether entrants selections are due at individual game kickoff times, or whether their full slate of selections must be submitted by a specific deadline each week.
3. Add prize tracking, if you want itNone is required. If your group plays for prizes, you can track weekly prizes for the best weekly point total, and tiered buy-ins with sidepots.
4. Share the pool and track it livePoints accrue as games finish, and the standings show exactly which entrants still have high-weight games in play.

Create your NFL Confidence pool — free to set up. Payment is due only after your game has kicked off and you are certain ALA's software can provide you with everything you need.

Frequently asked questions

How does scoring work in a confidence pool?

Each week you rank your picks from most to least confident. If there are 16 games, your most confident pick is worth 16 points, the next 15, and so on down to 1. You score the assigned weight for every pick you get right and zero for every one you get wrong. The highest season total wins.

What happens to the weights if a game is postponed?

The weights are recomputed across the remaining games rather than leaving a gap. Nobody keeps or loses points because of a schedule change, and no weight is wasted on a game that is not played.

Can a confidence pool use point spreads?

Yes. The pool can be configured so that picks are made against the spread rather than straight-up, while the confidence ranking works exactly the same way.

Do I have to pick every game?

In a confidence pool, yes — the ranking only means something if it covers the whole slate. If you want a pool where entrants pick a subset of games, a pick'em pool is the format you want.

Can two entrants assign the same weight to different games?

Yes. Weights are assigned independently by each entrant, so every entrant uses each weight exactly once within their own entry, but there is no coordination between entrants.

Compare every format in survivor vs pick'em vs confidence, or look up a term in the sports pool glossary.