The other mover up top was Brushton Minton, who won Walla Walla Frontier Days ($5,534) and backed it with a strong Ellensburg Rodeo to bank $13,035 on the week, climbing a spot to eighth at $142,013.87 and jumping Zack Jongbloed. Quade Hiatt won the second round at Ellensburg on his way to cracking the top 10 at $133,108.68.
The Bubble Runs Deep
With the kind of money on the line at the end of the season, the real bubble stretches from 13th clear down to 25th.
At the top of the danger zone, Beau Cooper roped his way up two spots to 14th ($115,470.17) but sits just $2,468.32 above the cut, and Tom Crouse is holding the cutline at 15th ($113,001.85) after cracking the top 15 the week prior. The men right behind them are closing fast: Tyler Calhoun ($110,167.65) is just $2,834.20 back in 16th, Dylan Hancock ($109,423.08) is $3,578.77 out in 17th, and former world champ Shad Mayfield ($107,795.50) is $5,206.35 off the pace in 18th after an $8,967 week. The hottest iron of the group—and the top earner in the entire field on the week at $14,494—belongs to Cole Clemons, who vaulted three spots to 19th ($106,187.78).
A strong week in September can be worth more than $20,000—enough to wipe out almost the entire gap between the top 15 cutline and the bottom of the bubble in a single weekend. Even Kyan Wilhite, sitting 13th at $124,285.13, is only about $11,000 clear of the cutline. With Puyallup, Pendleton, Abilene, Albuquerque, Mandan and the Governor’s Cup all still to happen, more than a dozen men have a real path to the last few NFR spots.
As CalfRoping.com noted in its year-over-year check-in, the money it takes to make the NFR keeps climbing: the 15th-place cutline has jumped from roughly $100,903 in 2025 to more than $113,000 now.
The Playoff Series Wrinkle
Here’s the catch that separates the contenders: world-standings money and Playoff Series points ride on two different ledgers. The Cinch Playoff Series rewards how a calf roper places at tour rodeos through the year, not just how much he’s won.
Two calf ropers now sitting inside the top 10 of the world standings, Brushton Minton and Quade Hiatt, missed the 24-man field for the $75,000 Puyallup Playoff Series rodeo (Sept. 10-13) because they finished outside the top 24 in Playoff Series points, which means they also will not be competing at the Playoff Series finale, the Governor’s Cup in Sioux Falls (Sept. 25-27, $166,667), leaving them vulnerable to getting bumped down in the standings.
The Mandan Cutoff
The entry cutoff for Mandan—the final tour rodeo of the season—has passed, and the 36-man field is taking shape. The top 32 in the 2026 world standings (as of seven days before entries closed) who enter are accepted with no exemptions, and the first-place winners of four Badlands Circuit qualifying rodeos—Aberdeen (Trey Young), Mandan (Riley Pruitt), Deadwood (Shane Hanchey) and Rapid City (Jerry Adamson)—round out the field.
Two of those four circuit winners are already locked into the top 32: Shane Hanchey (fifth in the world) and Riley Pruitt (23rd). Under the ground rules, their qualifying-rodeo spots roll down to the next-highest money earners who entered—which unofficially opens the door for Chet Weitz ($65,393.13, 33rd) and Colton Suther ($64,211.45, 34th). Trey Young and Jerry Adamson, both outside the top 32, take the other two exemptions on their own circuit wins.
2026 Tie-Down Roping World Standings
2026 PRCA Tie-Down Roping World Standings One check can change everything. Track the 2026 tie-down standings, see who’s on the bubble and follow every move in the race to the Finals. See the World Standings → The Road To The Finals Standings Bubble Watch Money Race Rookies Horsepower
