Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo 101: How does it work?

The revolutionary event will be held on May 17 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

03/14/2024

PUEBLO, Colo. – On May 17, during the PBR World Finals at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the PBR and Kid Rock will revolutionize Western sports with Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo.

The six teams, each led by a legendary rodeo head coach, will compete for a $1 million purse.

The star-studded lineup of rodeo royalty who will form five of the six competing rosters was announced earlier this week. The final team, the Free Riders, will be composed entirely of WCRA athletes and will be finalized at the conclusion of the WCRA’s Rodeo Corpus Christi on May 11.

There’s no doubt this event will be a rockin’ good time. Get your tickets now!

But before you can enjoy it, you have to know how it works, right?

Let’s get into it! Here are the basics.

Each team will be composed of 16 athletes, two in each discipline: barrel racing, tie-down roping, breakaway roping, steer wrestling, team roping (two headers and two heelers), saddle bronc riding and bareback riding.

There are four total rounds of competition. Rounds 1, 2 and 3 will consist of each discipline in an elimination bracket. Round 4 will feature the two teams with the most discipline bracket wins facing off head-to-head to determine which team is the event champion.

Rounds 1, 2 and 3 will be a series of discipline-specific head-to-head matchups against another team in a three-round tournament bracket.

Advancement to Round 2 will be the three bracket head-to-head matchup winners and one wild card athlete (the highest-placing athlete that did not advance) per discipline from Round 1.

Advancement to Round 3 will be the two head-to-head matchup discipline winners from Round 2 of the bracket.

Important to note: advancement to Rounds 2 and 3 is discipline-specific and not the overall team. For example, if a team loses its saddle bronc riding matchup, that team will no longer have a saddle bronc riding athlete participate through the remainder of the first three rounds.

However, teams need as many of their athletes as possible to advance to Round 3, as that gives them more chances to advance to the shootout round.

The Round 3 matchup winners in each discipline’s bracket will be awarded a gold medal, while the Round 3 matchup loser will be awarded a silver medal.

Based on teams' gold medal counts (bracket wins), the two teams with the most gold medals will advance to the shootout round, where they will face off head-to-head against each other. The shootout round is a clean slate, and each of the teams to advance will have one athlete in each discipline compete to determine the discipline win in the shootout round.

In the shootout round, the first team to win four disciplines clinches the event win and will be deemed the Kid Rock’s Rock N Rodeo Champion.

For example, let’s say the Misty Mountain Hop wins its head-to-head matchups in barrel racing, team roping, saddle bronc riding, bareback riding and breakaway roping in Round 1. Those athletes advance to Round 2, where the barrel racer, team ropers, bareback rider and breakaway roper win their next matchups to advance to Round 3. They all win again in Round 3, giving the Misty Mountain Hop four gold medals, which is good to advance the whole team into the shootout round. There, the Misty Mountain Hop wins its matchups in tie-down roping, steer wrestling, barrel racing and saddle bronc riding to win the event.

We’ll see you in Arlington on May 17!

Photo courtesy of Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media