Free 2026 NFL Founding Season — Official Rules
Effective: August 9, 2026 · Revision 2 · These rules govern the free 2026 Season Zero. Gameplay follows the official Football Module, and paid-contest terms are superseded as stated in Section 18.
Season Zero is free to enter. No entry fee, purchase, subscription, donation, deposit, paid account, or payment of any kind is required to enter or to win, and no payment will improve a participant's chances of winning. Any attempt to require or accept payment for Season Zero entry is void.
This contest is sponsored and administered by Earn N' Burn LLC, 475 Jake Alexander Blvd W, Suite 102, PMB 258, Salisbury, NC 28147 ("ENB," "we," "us").
Season Zero will be a free fantasy football contest that will serve as the inaugural "founding season" for Earn N' Burn and will be played during the NFL's 2026 Regular Season. It runs the identical game as the future paid contest, at no cost, to establish the community and crown ENB's first champion. Season Zero is a game of skill in which results are determined predominantly by participants' knowledge, judgment, strategy, and player selections under ENB's published scoring rules. No lottery, random drawing, coin flip, or other sponsor-administered random mechanism selects the winner.
Open only to individuals who, at the time of entry: (a) are at least eighteen (18) years of age; (b) are legal residents of the United States (all fifty states and the District of Columbia); and (c) have a valid ENB account. Season Zero is open to eligible residents of all fifty states and the District of Columbia, subject to "void where prohibited or restricted by law." Limit one (1) account and one (1) entry per person. Employees, officers, contractors, vendors, and agents of ENB, and their immediate household and family members, are not eligible to win.
Season Zero runs during NFL regular-season Weeks 1 through 17. Entry closes Sunday, September 13, 2026 at 12:55 p.m. Eastern Time. Contestants must have entered and completed a Week 1 lineup by that deadline. No late entries are accepted. Player and lineup locks follow the official Football Module.
Create a free ENB account, enter Season Zero, and complete a Week 1 lineup before the entry deadline. No payment step applies. A contestant who misses a later weekly lineup receives zero ENB Points for that week. Contestants may preload future weekly lineups, subject to all player and lineup locks.
Roster construction, the burn mechanic, the four-player single-team cap, weekly lineup locks, and scoring follow ENB's official Football Module. The controlling 11-slot lineup is:
For Season Zero standings, each weekly ENB Points total becomes final at 12:00 p.m. ET on the Wednesday following the applicable NFL week (the "Stat Correction Cutoff"). ENB will incorporate stat corrections reflected in its designated sources before the Stat Correction Cutoff and will not reopen a weekly result for a later source correction, except to correct an ENB clerical, calculation, or data-ingestion error in applying data that was available from a controlling source before the cutoff. Sleeper is the controlling source for player statistics other than touchdown distance. ESPN and any other third-party touchdown-distance feeds are initial scoring inputs only. Touchdown distance is determined under the audit procedure below, and the distance established under that procedure controls for ENB scoring. Before the Stat Correction Cutoff, ENB will conduct a documented weekly audit of every touchdown and will correct or supply touchdown-distance data when the distance is objectively verifiable from the official NFL gamebook or official NFL play-by-play, or, if neither states the distance, from two independent publicly available contemporaneous play-by-play sources that agree on the distance; the same verification standard will be applied uniformly to every scoring play and without regard to its effect on any participant's score, rank, or prize outcome, and ENB's touchdown-distance determinations are final at the Stat Correction Cutoff and will not be reopened based on information first published or identified after that cutoff. If touchdown distance cannot be verified under that procedure by the Stat Correction Cutoff, no touchdown-distance bonus is awarded for that play.
If an NFL game is postponed and completed before the Stat Correction Cutoff, scoring from that game is included. If a scheduled NFL game is canceled, abandoned, or postponed beyond the Stat Correction Cutoff and the controlling sources do not report final statistics for that game by the cutoff, no ENB Points from that game count for that Season Zero week. A selected player whose game never begins before the Stat Correction Cutoff is not burned by that selection. If the player's game begins before being suspended, canceled, or postponed, the normal burn rule applies even if no ENB Points from that game ultimately count.
ENB Football does not use cumulative point totals as the primary season standing. Instead, it uses the Rank Score system — a golf-style ranking where lower is better.
If two or more contestants finish with identical Rank Scores, the following skill-based tiebreakers apply in order:
Residual Exact Tie. If a tie remains after applying Items 1 through 4, the tied contestants share the affected finishing position and collectively consume the ranked positions they occupy. If a residual exact tie crosses the tenth-place prize cutoff, every contestant in that boundary tie receives the tenth-place prize package, including one Burnt Scroll and one merchandise set, even if this causes ENB to award more than ten Burnt Scrolls or more than ten merchandise sets. Each contestant tied for first place receives the first-place plaque. No lottery, random drawing, coin flip, or other sponsor-administered random mechanism is used to resolve a residual tie.
The scheduled base prize inventory assumes that no residual exact tie requires additional awards under Section 9. On that assumption, the scheduled base inventory consists of ten Burnt Scrolls, ten merchandise sets, and one first-place plaque, with a scheduled base aggregate ARV of $820.
If Section 9 requires additional awards, each additional prize recipient beyond the base ten adds one Burnt Scroll with an ARV of $25 and one merchandise set with an ARV of $37, increasing aggregate ARV by $62 for that additional recipient. Each additional first-place co-champion also receives a plaque with an ARV of $200.
Accordingly, $820 is the scheduled base aggregate ARV and is not a maximum aggregate ARV. The type and stated ARV of each prize awarded to an individual recipient are fixed as stated in these Rules; aggregate prize liability may increase only as expressly required by the residual-tie provisions of Section 9.
All prizes are fixed, non-cash, and non-transferable. Prize value does not depend on the number of entrants. ENB may substitute merchandise of equal or greater value if an item becomes unavailable. ENB expects to have the stated items available before Season Zero begins.
Winners are responsible for applicable taxes. ENB may require tax or identity documentation and will report prizes only as required by applicable law.
In addition to the prizes described in Section 10, ENB will record the Season Zero Champion in The Burn Ledger, a physical record maintained by ENB for seasonal contest champions across ENB sports and seasons.
The Season Zero entry will identify the Champion by first name, last initial, state, and season, for example, "NFL 2026 Season." The Burn Ledger entry is honorary recognition only, has no separate approximate retail value, is not transferable or redeemable for cash, and does not require a separate prize claim.
Burn Barrel weekly winners are not recorded in The Burn Ledger. If Season Zero has more than one Champion because a residual exact tie remains under Section 9, each co-champion will be recorded.
Throughout the season, ENB publishes a public leaderboard and may name a "Player of the Week." Recognition is honorary only and carries no additional prize.
ENB will notify the prize recipients through their ENB accounts and the email addresses on file promptly after Week 17. Each recipient must confirm acceptance and a valid U.S. shipping address within 10 days after ENB sends the notice. A recipient who timely confirms will remain entitled to the prize even if the confirmation occurs too late for shipment by January 11, 2027. An unclaimed, declined, or ineligible prize is forfeited and is not transferred to the next finisher.
ENB will ship Season Zero prizes to valid U.S. addresses at no cost to the recipient. If a recipient timely confirms acceptance and a valid U.S. shipping address early enough to permit shipment by Monday, January 11, 2027, ENB will ship that recipient's prize no later than January 11, 2027. If a timely confirmation is received too late to permit shipment by January 11, 2027, ENB will ship the prize within three (3) business days after receiving the timely confirmation. Prizes ship within the United States only. ENB is not responsible for carrier loss, delay, or misdirection after shipment.
Every Season Zero entrant is designated a Founding Player — a permanent account badge marking you as part of ENB's inaugural season. Founding Player status is a display and recognition designation only and carries no cash value.
All entries and potential winners are subject to verification. ENB may verify a participant's identity, age, eligibility, account, and lineup validity before awarding any prize, and may disqualify any entry that is incomplete, invalid, duplicate, fraudulent, or in violation of these rules. ENB's determinations on all matters of contest administration are final and binding.
Except where prohibited, by winning a prize the winner consents to ENB's use of the winner's first name, last initial, and state for winner-announcement and marketing purposes. ENB may invite (but does not require) top-10 winners to share photos of themselves with their prizes, which ENB may use for promotional purposes with the winner's permission. All personal information is collected and used in accordance with the ENB Privacy Policy.
Season Zero is a separate free contest. These rules supersede any entry-fee, paid-prize, reserve, paid-cancellation, paid-refund, AMOE, tax-form, or restricted-jurisdiction provision in ENB's paid-contest documents. Only the gameplay and scoring provisions identified in the official Football Module apply to Season Zero.
ENB may disqualify any participant who tampers with entry, uses multiple accounts or identities, manipulates results, or otherwise violates these rules or acts unfairly. If fraud, a technical failure, or any cause beyond ENB's reasonable control corrupts the integrity or administration of Season Zero, ENB may cancel or suspend the contest, as follows:
ENB's failure to enforce any provision does not waive it.
These rules are governed by the laws of North Carolina, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles. Any dispute relating to Season Zero is subject to the dispute-resolution provisions of the ENB Terms and Conditions.
Season Zero is a free promotional skill contest. It is not a lottery, sweepstakes drawing, raffle, bet, wager, or sportsbook product, and no consideration of any kind is required to enter or to win. Nothing in this contest constitutes gambling.