I know three of us were tied two years ago, and I know the biggest concern we had after the first two weeks of the playoffs was that you would have to use the potential SB winner just to stay alive, and none of us liked that. That's when we split. We were all tied though, nobody had a one game advantage
I don't mind ending it after week 17 NEXT year, the money could be prorated based on strikes left. If 3 remaining teams have 1, 1 and 0 strikes, there are 4 strikes remaining. The person with no strikes gets half the money (2/4), the other two get 1/4 each (or something like that)
For this year, all remaining participants would have to unanimously agree to something or the contest continues