From Ralph Clark,
Your Guide to Rodeo.
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Everyone knows that the NFR is the richest rodeo on earth with over 5 million dollars at stake over the 10-day run.

Each round pays out 6 places and the money available shakes out like this:

1. First --- $16,394.23
2. Second --- $12,956.73
3. Third --- $9,783.65
4. Fourth --- $6,875.00
5. Fifth --- $4,230.77
6. Sixth --- $2,644.23

As you can see, by winning rounds a cowboy can move within the standings quite easily depending on where the other competitors place and their own position coming into the finals.

The big money however, comes with winning the average. The average at the NFR can act like a booster rocket pushing a particular contestant ahead in a close standings race.

The average pays out 8 places, and at this years NFR (note: these are last years payouts - still waiting for the new payouts from the PRCA), it looks like this:

1. First --- $41,088
2. Second --- $33,335
3. Third --- $26,358
4. Fourth --- $19,381
5. Fifth --- $13,954
6. Sixth --- $10,078
7. Seventh --- $6,977
8. Eighth --- $3,876

Again, with over $40,000 going to first place you can see how important it is to remain competitive in the average...anything can happen!

(Statistics provided courtesy of the PRCA.)