PUEBLO, Colo. – You read that correctly: with Gambler Days in the rearview mirror, we’re officially at the halfway point of the 2024 PBR Camping World Team Series season.

We’re less than 60 days from the 2024 PBR Teams Championship on Oct. 18-20 in Las Vegas.

And, as this season is the first campaign with 10 teams instead of eight, the Championship will look a bit different this year.

The top two teams at the end of the regular season will still receive byes through the first day of competition, and eight teams will still compete in T-Mobile Arena in a three-day tournament.

But new this year is the Ride-In Round on Oct. 17. Following the Challenger Series Championship at the South Point Hotel, Casino & Spa, the four bottom teams in the standings at the end of the regular season will have to battle it out for two berths in the Championship. Those teams will compete in one four-way game, with the top two finishers advancing to T-Mobile Arena.

This is a big deal. In 2022, the last-place Nashville Stampede went from worst to first to win the inaugural PBR Teams Championship. And in 2023, the last-place Missouri Thunder had a comeback story of their own, ultimately finishing fourth in Las Vegas.

Now, those bottom teams aren’t guaranteed a spot until they earn it.

With high stakes both at the top and bottom of the standings, regular-season wins and losses are more crucial than ever with the clock ticking down to the Championship.

What would the playoff picture look like if the season ended today? Let’s take a look at what the landscape is looking like.

FIRST-ROUND BYES:

No. 1 Carolina Cowboys (11-1-1) No. 2 Kansas City Outlaws (9-4-0)

The top of the standings is an exceedingly clear picture at this point: the Cowboys and the Outlaws are the only two teams with winning records. While the Cowboys have a comfortable five-game lead over the No. 3 Austin Gamblers and No. 4 Nashville Stampede (both 7-7), the Outlaws are just 2.5 games ahead of those .500 squads. And with plenty of games left to play before the postseason, Kansas City will have to keep the pedal to the metal if they want to secure their second consecutive first-round bye.

Of note, though, is that no team has ever turned a first-round bye into a PBR Teams Championship. In 2022, the Stampede battled from the bottom of the standings, and last year, the Texas Rattlers narrowly finished No. 3 in the regular season. Can the Cowboys or the Outlaws (or another team that sneaks into the Top 2) reverse this trend, or is the first-round bye actually a curse?

MIDDLE OF THE PACK:

No. 3 Austin Gamblers (7-7-0) No. 4 Nashville Stampede (7-7-0) No. 5 Florida Freedom (6-7-0) No. 6 Texas Rattlers (6-8-0)

Below the Top 2 teams, the picture is much murkier. These four teams are separated by just one game, and there’s been a ton of movement – things are far from etched in stone.

There are a few notable surprises here, including the two-time reigning regular-season champion Austin Gamblers and 2023 PBR Teams Champion Texas Rattlers, both of whom have gotten off to a slow start in 2024. Equally as surprising is the Nashville Stampede, which finished the prior two regular seasons at No. 7 and No. 8. Will any of these teams be able to separate themselves from the pack before Las Vegas?

RIDE-IN ROUND:

No. 7 Missouri Thunder (6-8-0) No. 8 New York Mavericks (6-8-0) No. 9 Oklahoma Wildcatters (5-8-1) No. 10 Arizona Ridge Riders (4-9-0)

These are the squads currently facing the Ride-In Round, but check out those records: the Thunder and Mavericks have the same number of wins and losses as the Rattlers, who are currently in the safe zone thanks to their higher aggregate score, which is, in fact, the third-highest overall.

Speaking of aggregate scores, the Wildcatters – ranked No. 9 in the standings – have the fourth-highest aggregate. On the other side of the coin, the Mavericks, who have been ranked as high as No. 6, have the No. 10 aggregate. There’s clearly been some luck involved on both ends of the spectrum, and if things regress to the mean in the second half of the season, there could be some significant movement.

While the No. 7 rank isn’t where a team wants to be, it’s good progress for the Thunder, who finished the 2023 regular season ranked No. 8 of eight teams with an 8-20 record. With six wins at the halfway point, the 2024 Thunder look to well outpace last year’s production, and with their Cinderella story at last year's PBR Teams Championship, they’re a squad that knows how to put on a show in Las Vegas.

The biggest surprise in this bunch is Arizona, which has competed on Championship Sunday in Las Vegas in both prior iterations of the event. In both 2022 and 2023, the Ridge Riders placed fifth in the regular season. While it’s not looking good this year, they’re just two games behind the No. 5 Florida Freedom. If they can stop their six-game losing streak, climbing out of the basement is more than possible.

IN CONCLUSION

In 2022, the Texas Rattlers won their final nine games of the season to climb the standings and finish the regular season with a bye, ranked No. 2. Also that year, the Stampede finished the season ranked No. 8 of eight teams but came back to win the championship.

At the same time, the Austin Gamblers finished the regular season ranked No. 1 in both 2022 and 2023 but failed to win a PBR Teams title both times.

Six regular-season events remain before the teams converge on Las Vegas—beginning with Thunder Days in Springfield, Missouri, on Aug. 30-Sept. 1 (tune in all weekend on Merit Street and CBS)—and each one will be crucial in deciding who comes out on top.

Any team can get hot at any time, and there’s sure to be plenty of drama before the world’s largest gold buckle is handed out!

Photo courtesy of Josh Homer/Bull Stock Media