The 2025 Super Bowl Squares Pool

Sunday, February 9th 6:30pm
$3.00 per Square 

By far the most popular "football pool" is the Super Bowl Squares Game. If you have never played before, I'll take the beginners out there through the basics of the game, remind everyone of some simple strategy, and discuss the rules on how the game played. The Premise: The reason this game is so successful is that you need absolutely ZERO knowledge of the NFL to win. It's just so simple. We will have a grid of 100 squares. Ten squares on the X-axis (horizontal), ten of the Y-axis (vertical). Players "pay a donation” for the rights to own a square. For all you lawyers out there, please keep in mind that this is for "entertainment" purposes only! The Process: There is no minimum but there will be a five square limit per person unless we get close to game day and still have squares. At that point I will email everyone and it will be first come first serve. This way more people can play. You simply click the square/number (up to 5) you want and type your name at the bottom and click Submit Squares. If two people pick the same square, the one who has emailed it to me first will get it and the other player will be notified to choose a different square. Once all squares are filled with player’s names, the numbers are drawn (before the Super Bowl begins!). One team’s name is placed on the horizontal side of the sheet, the other team’s name on the vertical side of the sheet. Then, numbers 0 through 9 will be added to pieces of paper and drawn one at a time out of the hat. Each number is added, starting in the top left corner of the four squares in the top of the column in the order they are pulled out of the hat. This process is repeated down the side. We will have what is known as a “Slant” pool. This pool involves the numbers actually rotating after each quarter. So, for instance, after each quarter 2 is added to each number. So in the first quarter you've got a 7, a 9 in the second quarter, a 1 in the third and finally a 3 in the fourth (for all of you that aren't good in math). This avoids the problem with players getting stuck with a 2-5 combination and we all know by now, that square never hardly wins. It's kind of complicated to run, so you don't see this type of pool out there all that often (especially with the beverage of choice being consumed by most Super Bowl attendees) but I believe it is a much more fair pool for everyone. Once the Super Bowl is played, the final score of each quarter is used to determine each winner. You win a portion of the pool if your number matches the ending score of that quarter. So, for instance if the half-time score is 17 (Kansas City) -14 (Philadelphia), then the winner of that quarter would be the owner of the square that intersects the Chiefs at 7 and the Eagles at 4, if your name is in that square...YOU WIN! The Strategy: One basic strategy is not to select multiple squares on the same row or column. This is to minimize the chance that all of your picks have the same bad number. One strategy is to write their name diagonally on multiple blocks. If you want particular squares get in early!! The Payouts: The pool will split into 4 winners: one winner for each of the first three quarters and one for the final score. If the game goes into overtime, there is no 4th  quarter winner. We will use the same 4th quarter numbers for the final score to get our 4th winner. This pool allots $300 ($3.00 per square * 100 squares) $75 for each of the first three quarters and $75 for the final score ($75 per quarter *3 = $225 + $75 for the final score = $300). Disqualifications: All money must be paid by Thursday, February 6th. This gives everyone roughly a week and half to get the money to me. There will be NO EXCEPTIONS. If I do not have your money by the above date your squares will be forfeited and resold before the following Friday to ensure I have the full payout amount. I hate to sound harsh, but I do not have the money to pay the winners myself.