And then there were 10. The Circa Sports Survivor contest was trimmed significantly after Sunday’s NFL Week 14 results.
Key Takeaways
- 62% of the Week 14 participants were eliminated when the Saints upset the Bucs.
- An Eagles loss to the Chargers would send the contest to single-digit scores.
- The contest began with a record 18,178 entries in Week 1.
The New Orleans Saints upset the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 24-20, eliminating 62% of the 45 entries that were still alive. The Cleveland Browns failed to beat the lowly Tennessee Titans, knocking out another five contestants, and the Baltimore Ravens’ 27-22 upset loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers sent one more entry packing.
Just one contestant picked the Philadelphia Eagles for Monday night’s showdown with the Los Angeles Chargers. A loss there would leave single-digit participants left to compete for the $18.17 million prize pool with just four weeks left in the regular season.
#CircaSurvivor 🏈🏆update after 10:00am games.
— Circa Sports (@CircaSports) December 7, 2025
❌28 Bucs, 5 Browns, 1 Ravens eliminated.
✅3 Seahawks, 1 Dolphins advance to week 15
34 of the 45 go down with 7 still pending. https://t.co/75tqlPygGO https://t.co/UjxhqLmNfe
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Disastrous upset
The Bucs' loss was bad for their hopes to win the NFC South, but it was brutal for the 28 people in the Circa contest who picked Tampa to win the game. The 8.5-point favorite led 10-7 at halftime, giving Bucs backers hope. The Saints took an early 14-10 lead in the third quarter, but Tampa answered to go up 17-14 with 7:37 left in the third.
New Orleans then scored on a 13-yard run by quarterback Tyler Shough with 8:26 remaining in the game to take a 24-17 lead. Needing a touchdown, the Bucs had to settle for a field goal late, and even though they got the ball back on their own 20 with under two minutes to play, they only gained nine yards before turning the ball over on downs.
Everything, from officials to missed tackles to a dropped interception, seemingly went against the Bucs in the final minutes, leaving those Circa selectors reeling.
Getting by
The nine entries that already made it through Week 14 didn’t have that kind of sweat. Three picks each were on the Seahawks and Rams. Seattle throttled the Falcons 37-9, while Los Angeles pounded Arizona 45-17.
The Broncos won 24-17 at the Las Vegas Raiders. Denver was up 24-7 in the third quarter, and Raiders quarterback Geno Smith exited the game with an injury. Las Vegas made an effort to cover the 7.5-point spread, but the Broncos didn’t make it too hard on the two Circa contestants who picked them.
The Dolphins were chosen by one entry, and they easily handled the Jets 34-10. The Packers got another contestant through with a 28-21 victory over the Bears.
Whittled down
The famed Las Vegas contest, where participants can only pick one team for the entire season to win a single week, began with a record 18,178 entries. Just four weeks ago, there were still 1,000 contestants remaining. However, a string of upsets and a two-week Thanksgiving schedule has moved the implied value per entry to $1.8 million heading into Monday.
Should the contest still be active in Week 17, it will once again be broken up into two different weeks, with participants selecting a winner for the three Christmas Day games and then another for the Sunday and Monday contests.
If there are multiple entries remaining after 20 picks, the prize pool is split evenly. If a single week eliminates the entire field, the contestants who were alive that week share the prize. The remaining entries could also independently agree as a group to split part of the prize pool and play for the rest, which has been done in previous years.
