NFBR 2021 Insights

Finals champ to be decided on 10 calves across town from NFR.

Martha Angelone Breakaway Roping
In the 2020 NFBR sudden-death format, Martha Angelone banked $29,343 to win the event and become the WPRA Reserve World Champion by less than $3,000./PRCA ProRodeo Photo by Joe Duty

The wild and jam-packed-with-fans Monday Night Football kickoff game Sept. 13 in Las Vegas brought Sin City back into people’s periphery, while reminding the WPRA’s best breakaway ropers that they still didn’t know if they’d have a culminating PRCA event in Vegas as the regular season wrapped.

Fortunately, the PRCA and WPRA’s National Finals of Breakaway Roping, following up the inaugural event held last December in Arlington, Texas, was set, at press time, to feature 10 rounds and an average, likely over two days at The Orle­ans, with at least the same $200,000 purse offered last year.

“We’re excited to have a Finals,” said Jordan Fabrizio, who throat-latched all 12 of her calves at last year’s NFBR. “Our end goal is for our Finals to be consistent with the men’s events.”

It’s not quite there in location considering the Wrangler NFR plays out in UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center nightly—but it’s a big win that the NFBR will feature the traditional NFR format. To breakaway ropers, it’s simple: The NFR means 10 rounds and an aggregate payout.

NFBR to be held at The Orleans, payout of at least $200,000

For anyone who didn’t know, the 2020 NFBR was also 10 rounds and an average. Bur wait—it was also a sudden-death semi-finals and a sudden-death final-four. That’s right. The gals making history in Arlington last year roped through both kinds of rodeos because neither side would concede on format.

“Last year, the PRCA wanted it all sudden-death so that the winner earned most of the money on the last calf, which rendered the regular season worthless,” said WPRA Breakaway Director Jolee Jordan. “We pushed back on that. This explosion in the popularity of breakaway is due to these ladies, and they deserved to have their voices heard, I thought. I still feel that way. We compromised to where the average didn’t pay, but was used as the basis for who advanced.”

In those first 10 rounds Dec. 8-10, 2020, Fabrizio and Martha Angelone waged the most epic breakaway battle in history. Fabrizio’s 34.5 seconds on 10 edged Angelone’s 34.8 on 10 by a scant three-tenths of a second. Can you say un­believable scoring and roping? The rounds paid six holes, with $4,412 going to each winner. But after 10 runs, Fabrizio earned nothing for her aggregate feat. Not an NFR average buckle. Not a single dollar.

Instead, the top eight in that 10-head NFBR average simply advanced to a two­-calf tournament chat paid out the real money. Seven of the Top 15 were elimi­nated after the eleventh calf. The four who advanced with their smoking runs earned zero dollars. Because the final-four round would pay out a whopping $33,087.

Nfbr 2021 Insights
Jackie Crawford won $25,536 for third at the NFBR, leaving with the gold buckle./PRCA ProRodeo Photo by Joe Duty

“Everyone was obviously grateful to be there, but last year didn’t necessarily feel like the NFR,” Boisjoli said.

Breakaway Bonus: World Champ Crawford and NFBR Champ Angelone on The Score

In the top-eight round, Fabrizio and Angelone caught their 11th calves in matching 1.8s to continue their battle for dominance. Then, in the Finals, Angelone’s 2.3 won the top check of the NFBR, just edging Fabrizio’s 2.5, while the other two advancers—Jackie Crawford and Lari Dee Guy—both broke out. But Crawford’s breakout was still worth a third-place check for $7,258. It was enough to give her the World Title by $1,925.

In the end, for roping 12 calves in a row dean, Angelone rook $29,343 total out of Arlington and Fabrizio earned $26,426. Crawford caught a leg on a calf and broke out on a calf and earned $25,536.

All this to say, the top female ropers are ecstatic to see the National Finals money being distributed traditionally this time. To Fabrizio, keeping the format tradition­al is about “protecting the integrity of the gold buckle.” To Boisjoli, it’s about letting every one of the 15 girls at the Finals have an equal opportunity to make money. Nobody this December will get to run extra calves.

“You rope all year and haul a million miles and drive 10 hours to a $750-added rodeo over and over and then, in December, it can just be about one calf for the big money?” Boisjoli asked. “That’s not how a world title should be decided, in my opinion. Look at Shad [Mayfield] last year, who had six no-times and still won the World, deservedly. If the NFR had been tournament style, he’d have had no chance with that bad start.”

The Official Payout Break Down for First National Finals of Breakaway Roping 

The push for tournament brackets came from PRCA administrators who believed breakaway wouldn’t be palatable to fans unless it was sudden-­death. This theory, that fans of rodeo can’t understand an aggregate format, has led to historic rodeos like Cheyenne Frontier Days swapping a hundred years of tradition to go sudden-death. Yet, most contestants say tournaments are actually more confusing to both them and to fans trying to figure out what’s going on any particular day.

Consider golf. Can non-golfers understand that Tiger Woods’s score at the Masters Tournament is simply an aggregate of his strokes over four rounds? Yes, according to international TV ratings.

Nfbr 2021 Insights
PRCA ProRodeo Photo by Joe Duty

As the world’s best breakaway ropers get ready to match skills over 10 rounds in a different arena, Interim CEO Tom Clause said in September that the PRCA is going to continue to work to find a way to introduce breakaway at the NFR. He pointed out that the performances at the Thomas & Mack Center run on a very tight time schedule. He also said they’ve added 2-minute breaks for TV commercials and will hand-rake after every barrel racer this year.

Purses have to grow along with breakaway, and female ropers understand it will take time for their purses at PRCA rodeos across America to match that of other events. And they’re happy to do anything they can to grow breakaway financially.

In 2021, they spent just as much money hauling to roughly 75 rodeos to make the Finals as did the PRCA’s male calf ropers, who plan to recoup their losses via a $1.2-million NFR purse.

But the gals are tapped out. It’s imperative, Boisjoli and Fabrizio said in September, that they know, now, what the 2022 National Finals will pay, so they can plan accordingly where to invest their time and money next season.

Lari Dee Guy, ranked eighth in the World Standings at press time, would love to see the breakaway ropers bring new sponsors to professional rodeo, thus sup­porting all events—including the break­away—with more funding.

“If the PRCA could just let us know what it needs from us to treat us the same, that would be great,” she said. “I know we need new sponsorships in rodeo, period.”

The profitability of reaching new fe­male fans could be the most exciting thing about the addition of breakaway to the oldest rodeo-sanctioning body in Amer­ica. Consider the popularity across the country of Hailey Kinsel and Sister, her sunshine-colored barrel racing mare. Over seven years at RFD-TV’s The American, barrel racing was the fan-favorite event to watch. This is not lost on Wrangler. Not a single female Western sports fan—to the tune of 2.8 million views—could help tuning in to the Wrangler Network last December as Kinsel herself interviewed the inaugural NFBR champions.

CATEGORIES
TAGS
SHARE THIS ARTICLE
RELATED ARTICLES
2024 Resistol Rookie of the Year candidate Nikayla Brill caught at check in Brighton, Florida.
First look
The Southeast's Taking Over the 2024 Resistol Rookie of the Year Breakaway Race
Martha Angelone and legend rope at the Texas Circuit Finals
Circuit queens
The 26 Breakaway Ropers Qualified for the 2024 NFR Open
Walk-in The Dog breakaway roping at the WRWC.
Bag ➡️ Secured
Women's Rodeo World Championship Partners with Kimes Ranch Jeans, Set to Pay $750K
Tacy Kay Webb wins Rodeo Austin 2024 with a 7.6 on three head.
Keep Austin Rodeo
Tacy Kay Webb Takes Rodeo Austin 2024: Full Breakaway Roping Results
Quincy Sullivan Slides Into Resistol Rookie Roundup Championship
Exclusively Rookies
$100K Rookie-Only Rodeo Returns to Fort Worth
Danielle Lowman has captured the hearts of rodeo enthusiasts with her lightning-fast hand and laid back attitude. Listen to Dani Lowman on The Breakdown podcast.
DLOW Show
Danielle Lowman: Breakaway Roping Sensation from the Navajo Nation on "The Breakdown" Podcast
GET UPDATES

"*" indicates required fields

Name*
Country*

Additional Offers

Additional Offers
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.