2026 Best Ball Advance Rate Report Card
Your projected advance rate, the teams and players driving it, and what your draft choices tell you.
Projected Advance Rate
Teams by Advance Outlook
Your Top Teams
Top Players on Your Advancing Teams
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Best Ball Advance Rate Report Card?
A weekly summary of your Underdog Best Ball portfolio: how many of your teams would advance out of their pods if the regular season ended today, how that compares to the average, your top teams, and which players are carrying your advancing teams.
How is my advance rate calculated?
Each team gets a chance of finishing top two in its 12-team pod based on its % Perfect, compared against real Underdog pods through the same week. All 12 teams in a pod draft from the same player pool, so when your team scores more, the other 11 tend to score a little less. We account for that. Your advance rate is the average of those chances across all your teams. .
What is % Perfect?
% Perfect is how much of the best possible score your team has captured this season: your lineup points divided by the Perfect Lineup's points, the highest-scoring lineup anyone could have set each week, added up across Weeks 1 to the last completed week. For example, 600 of a possible 1,000 points is 60%.
What do the levels mean?
Very likely: about 95% or more. Likely: 75% to 95%. Toss-up: 25% to 75%. Unlikely: 5% to 25%. Very unlikely: under 5%. These are based on top-two advancement, which contests like Best Ball Mania VII and The Puppy use. Contests that advance three teams are easier to advance from than shown.
What are Zero RB, Hero RB and the other build strategies?
Each team gets one build strategy per position, based on the rounds where it drafted players at that position. Rounds come from your actual picks, so Build Strategy uses imported Underdog teams. These are working definitions, and some analysts draw the lines a little differently.
QB
Elite QB: First QB drafted in rounds 1 to 5.
Mid QB: First QB drafted in rounds 6 to 9.
Late QB: First QB drafted in round 10 or later.
RB
Robust RB: 3 or more RBs in rounds 1 to 4 and 5 or more RBs total.
Hyperfragile RB: 2 or more RBs in rounds 1 to 4 and 4 or fewer RBs total.
Double Anchor RB: Exactly 2 RBs in rounds 1 to 4 and 5 or more RBs total.
Hero RB: Exactly 1 RB in rounds 1 to 4.
Zero RB: No RBs in rounds 1 to 4.
WR
Heavy WR: 6 to 7 WRs in rounds 1 to 7.
Standard WR: 4 to 5 WRs in rounds 1 to 7.
Light WR: At least 1 WR in rounds 1 to 4 and 3 or fewer WRs in rounds 1 to 7.
Zero WR: No WRs in rounds 1 to 4.
TE
Bully TE: 2 or more TEs in rounds 1 to 6.
Elite TE: Exactly 1 TE in rounds 1 to 6.
Mid TE: First TE drafted in rounds 7 to 10.
Late TE: First TE drafted in round 11 or later.
What is a good advance rate in best ball?
In contests like Best Ball Mania VII and The Puppy, the top 2 of 12 teams advance, so an average portfolio advances about 16.7% of its teams.
How are the tiers set?
The tiers compare your projected advance rate with the 16.7% average, the share of teams that advance when the top 2 of 12 move on. Elite is 25% or higher. Great is 20% or higher. Above average is 17.7% or higher. Average is 15.7% or higher. Below average is 13.4% or higher. Well below average is 8.4% or higher. Far below average is under 8.4%.
How is Top Players on Your Advancing Teams calculated?
We look at your teams that are Likely or Very likely to advance and add up the points each player contributed to their best ball lineups this season. Players are ranked by their share of those points. Exposure, Advance Rate, and vs. Portfolio show how all of your teams with that player are doing compared with your portfolio overall.
When does it update?
After each week is complete, usually Tuesday morning, through Week 14.
Is this my official standing?
No. Only Underdog knows your pod standings. This is an estimate based on real pods.
Why might Underdog show a different advance rate?
Projections assume the top 2 teams in each 12-team pod advance, as in Best Ball Mania VII and The Puppy. In contests where 3 or 4 teams advance, your real chances are higher than shown. The projection also uses only your teams' scores, while Underdog's standings reflect your actual pod-mates, so your real rate will differ, sometimes higher and sometimes lower.