PBR Announces Special Competition Format for Billings

By: Justin Felisko
April 17, 2018

PUEBLO, Colo. – The PBR Competition Committee has approved a special format for the upcoming Stanley Performance In Action Invitational, presented by Cooper Tires, 25^th PBR: Unleash The Beast event in Billings, Montana, this weekend.

The three-day event also involves a separate 15/15 Bucking Battle, which has led to the creation of this new format to help protect riders who could be attempting as many as five bulls in three days.

The riders that are slated to compete in the 15/15 Bucking Battle in Billings on Saturday night will no longer also attempt a long-round bull earlier in the evening.

Therefore, Round 1 of the Billings event is going to be split across two nights of competition with two groups of riders. The 60 highest-ranking riders in the world standings will compete in Billings.

On Friday night, riders competing in Saturday night’s 15/15 Bucking Battle will compete alongside 20 other pre-selected riders from the draw in Round 1 Group A.

Saturday night will then feature the remaining 25 riders in the draw competing in Round 1 Group B prior to the 15/15 Bucking Battle.

The Top 30 individual scores from Group A and B will advance to Round 2 on Sunday. Should fewer than 30 qualified rides be recorded, the remaining slots will be filled according to the PBR world standings at the start of the event.

The championship round will then consist of the Top 15 riders in the event average based on their two rides.

Seeing as Round 1 will be split into two days, the PBR Competition Committee has approved a new world points and payout structure for Round 1.

The Round 1 winner in Billings will receive 120 world points and $5,000. World points will be awarded to the Top 14 finishers in Round 1 as follows – 120, 100, 80, 70, 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5, 5, 5, 5.

Round 2 and the championship round will award the standard world point and prize money as a regular Unleash The Beast event.

The event winner will be the rider that accumulates the most world points via round placement and event average finish during the event.

All three rounds from Billings will be airing live on CBS Sports Network, while the 15/15 Bucking Battle airs on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET.

The primary reasoning behind the change in format is to lessen the number of bulls a rider may potentially get on over the course of a three-day weekend when there are weeks with back-to-back 15/15 Bucking Battles.

During a regular three-day event weekend with a 15/15 Bucking Battle, one rider could potentially get on at least five bulls in three days. In comparison, riders attempt six bulls at the PBR World Finals in a span of five days.

The decision to make the change has been brought with a mixed bag of reactions from riders on the Unleash The Beast, but two-time World Champion Justin McBride, who is a member of the competition committee, stressed that the committee will re-assess the format following Billings.

There is no decision on when this format will be used again.

“We will see how it works, but I like the idea of it because they are dropping like flies,” McBride said. “We have seen it already this year. It is just not the bottom guys or guys that are riding mediocre. It is the best guys getting banged up, but they are having to face more and more rank bulls. I have heard some guys say it’s not that they don’t like the 15/15, but they don’t like getting on so many bulls in one weekend. Hopefully this is a good thing for them.”

There are currently 10 riders inside the Top 35 out of competition, while a slew of others are riding with injuries.

Many riders stressed their disappointment of potentially only attempting one bull in Billings vs. normally getting on at least three bulls.

“Now you are making 60 guys come to the top level of the sport, it kind of makes it a little less prestigious to get to the highest level of the sport,” one rider said. “It gives more chances to riders that are coming up, which is always good if you are in that position I guess.”

Billings, however, is not the only event in which a rider may only get one bull. This was a possibility at Iron Cowboy in February and will be possible at Last Cowboy Standing in Las Vegas and the Music City Knockout in Nashville, Tennessee.

2016 PBR World Champion Cooper Davis was in favor of the switch, while reigning World Champion Jess Lockwood preferred the old format.

“It keeps us guys from putting so much wear and tear on our body,” Davis said. “I like it. I think it is a good deal.”

Lockwood said, “No. I am not getting on as many bulls. If you are not getting on, there is points being left on the table.”

Follow Justin Felisko on Twitter @jfelisko

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