Free taste
Tell us what you are cooking. See how a prep-day and contest-day schedule works back from your sanctioning body’s turn-in times, and keeps everything that can be done the day before off contest day. The first steps of each day are free; the whole timeline is in BBQOps.
Note The interactive builder and importer need JavaScript. Here is the start of an example for a KCBS master series contest, cooking low and slow, with meat inspected the evening before.
Pack the truck from your checklist
Cookers, fuel, rubs, sauces, foil, gloves, thermometers, knives, coolers with ice, and a way to keep meat at 40°F or below.
Make your injection, rub and sauce
Mix them now. They go on the meat only after it is inspected.
Wash and dry your garnish Rule 13
Fresh green lettuce, curly or flat parsley, curly green kale and/or cilantro, whole leaves or chopped, sliced or shredded. No lettuce cores, stems or other greens. Dry it well and keep it cold.
+ 14 more steps on the day before. See what is included
Light the cooker for pork
Fire starters are fine. Gas never goes inside the cooker with the meat.
Pork on
10 h cook, then 1 h hold. Cook to tenderness, not to the clock.
Light the cooker for pork ribs
Fire starters are fine. Gas never goes inside the cooker with the meat.
+ 28 more steps on contest day. See what is included
How it works
Who sanctions the contest, what you are entering, when meat is inspected, when you get your boxes, and how you cook.
The times work backward from each turn-in, using the window and order in the sanctioning document, and nothing touches meat before inspection.
This page shows the first steps of each day. In BBQOps you get every step, ready to print with your team’s name on it, a timeline you already have checked against the same rules, and a play-by-play on every crew member’s phone.
The rules it follows
These are the defaults. Organizers publish the real times in the cooks’ packet, and you can change them in the tool.
Kansas City Barbeque Society: chicken, ribs, pork and brisket, 30 minutes apart.
5 minutes before to 5 after the posted time.
KCBS Official Rules and Regulations, Master Series 2026 (contests from 11/10/2025 through 12/31/2026)
International Barbeque Cookers Association: chicken, ribs and brisket, 1½ hours apart.
10 minutes before to 10 after the posted time.
IBCA Rules, revised January 21, 2025 (effective January 21, 2025)
Memphis Barbecue Network: whole hog, pulled pork and ribs, a blind round and on-site finals.
15 minute window that ends at the posted time.
MBN 2026 General Rules and Information (December 2025)
Times and rules were read from each body’s own document. BBQOps is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by KCBS, IBCA or MBN.
Questions
No. The sanctioning body’s document and your contest’s cooks’ packet are the authority, and the contest Reps’ decisions are final. This tool starts from the times the documents set and shows its working so you can check it. Organizers can change turn-in times; change them here to match your packet.
Anything that does not need meat is done the day before, so contest day is for the meat: washing and portioning garnish, cutting foil, planning portions, practising a box, and collecting and bedding the boxes if your organizer issues them early. The plan does everything the rules allow on the day before and tells you what has to wait.
This page is a free taste of the Comp Day Timeline: it works, and it shows you the first steps of each day so you can see how it plans. The whole timeline, with printing, copying and downloading, is part of BBQOps teams.
Nowhere. It is read and checked in your browser, and the last thing you entered is kept in this browser only so a refresh does not lose it. Nothing is sent to BBQOps.
Your timeline has no dates, so the tool works out which rows are prep day and which are contest day from the headings, a day word in the time, or the clock running past midnight. When it had to guess a day or an AM/PM, it says so, and you can change it.
They are starting points for low and slow and hot and fast, and you can set each meat either way. For numbers worked out from your own cooker, the size of the meat, its grade and how done you want it, use the Cook Time Calculator and send its times here.
Not yet. This version follows the standard recognized categories in each document: KCBS chicken, ribs, pork and brisket (and Backyard chicken and ribs), IBCA chicken, ribs and brisket, MBN whole hog, pulled pork and ribs.
Bring your timeline, your crew and your history. Leave the clipboard in the truck.