A loser pool flips the entire premise of a survivor pool. Instead of picking a team you think will win, you pick a team you think will lose. Get it right and you survive. Get it wrong and you're out. It's also called a reverse survivor pool, and less commonly an upside-down survivor pool or anti-survivor pool, but it's all the same format underneath.
To be clear about what this isn't: some sites use "loser pool" to describe a side pool that catches people after they've already been eliminated from a normal survivor pool. That's a different thing, closer to what most people call a second chance bracket. What we're describing here is a standalone pool where picking a loser is the entire game from Week 1 on.
How It Works
Every week, each entry picks one NFL team they expect to lose. If that team wins, the entry is eliminated. If it loses, the entry survives to the next week.
Everything else about a normal survivor pool carries over. You can only pick each team once per season, unless team reuse is turned on for the pool. Mulligans, if the commissioner has them enabled, still revive an eliminated entry. The last entry standing wins.
Ties are worth calling out specifically, because most sites just eliminate you outright if your pick ties. Sunday Survivor doesn't hardcode that. The commissioner sets whether a tie counts as a win or a loss for the picked team, and loser pool applies its own flipped logic on top of whatever they've chosen. So depending on the pool's settings, a tie can either keep your entry alive or end it, and it's the commissioner's call, not a fixed rule.
Why Commissioners Run It
The honest appeal is variety. If your group has run the same straightforward survivor pool for five seasons, everyone already knows how to play it, and the strategy conversations get repetitive. A loser pool asks a genuinely different question each week: not "who's going to win," but "who's obviously going to lose, and am I sure enough to stake my season on it." That's a different kind of sweat, and for groups that like the format but want something fresher, it's an easy swap.
It also tends to produce more chaos than people expect. Picking a heavy underdog to lose feels safe, right up until the week a 13-point dog pulls off the upset and takes out half the pool in one afternoon.
The Rules, Plain and Simple
- Every week: pick a team you expect to lose.
- If your team wins: you're eliminated.
- If your team loses: you survive.
- Team reuse: still restricted to once per season per entry, unless the commissioner turns that off.
- Everything else: mulligans, ties handling, and the rest of the pool's settings work exactly like they would in a normal pool.
Stacking It With Other Settings
Loser pool isn't an all-or-nothing switch. It's built to combine with the pool's other rules rather than replace them.
Turn on double pick weeks alongside it, and entries need two losing picks that week instead of one, both teams have to lose or the entry's done. Turn on second chance alongside it, and an entry's first elimination (their first winning pick) drops them into the runner-up bracket instead of ending their season outright, same as it would in a standard pool.
How to Enable It on Sunday Survivor
Loser pool is a toggle in your pool settings, alongside double pick weeks and second chance. Flip it on before your first pick deadline and the platform handles the flipped scoring automatically, no separate tracking, no manual overrides each week.
Set up your pool at sundaysurvivor.com →
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a loser pool in football?
A loser pool, also called a reverse survivor pool, is a survivor-style pool where you pick a team you expect to lose each week instead of one you expect to win. A winning pick eliminates you.
Is a loser pool the same as a survivor pool?
Same structure, opposite goal. Standard rules like one team per week and no repeat picks still apply, but you're rooting for your pick to lose instead of win.
Can I run a loser pool with second chance or double pick weeks?
Yes. Loser pool changes what counts as a win or loss for your pick, it doesn't replace the pool's other settings. Second chance and double pick weeks both still work, they just use the flipped scoring.
Curious about other survivor pool formats? Check out our guides on second chance brackets, the biggest mistakes people make, and how to run a pool as commissioner.