How to Set up a Super Bowl Pool Grid

The Super Bowl is an American institution that always generates excitement, even for people who don’t feverishly follow the National Football League. A Super Bowl pool grid can give you and your friends a stake in the action—and to play you don’t need to know anything about offensive and defensive schemes, player statistics or point spreads. The pool is similar to a lottery, and the big guys on the field determine which numbers on the grid turn out to be the winners.

Things You'll Need

  • Rectangular sheet of paper or posterboard
  • Bowl
  • Small slips of paper
  • Pen or marker
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Instructions

    • 1

      Draw your grid. The grid is made up of 100 boxes—10 horizontally by 10 vertically. Make the boxes big enough so your pool participants can write their names inside of them. Leave some space on your board outside of the grid because you’ll need to write numbers there once the boxes are claimed.

    • 2

      Have the players in your Super Bowl pool write their names in the boxes. Get as many players to participate in the game as possible and fill up the whole grid. It’s more exciting—and more difficult to win—when players claim five boxes or less. There are no scientific tactics for choosing a winning box. It’s all chance.

    • 3

      Write in the numbers. When the boxes are all claimed—and not before—you will insert the numbers that will determine the Super Bowl pool winner. Take 10 slips of paper, write the numbers zero through nine on them, and drop them into a bowl. Take out a slip and write the number you chose above the first column of your grid, on the top of the sheet. Continue to draw numbers and write them over each column going across. Redraw the numbers and write them next to the rows on the left-hand side of the grid. Each column and each row should be connected to a number.

    • 4

      Insert the teams' names. Write the name of the AFC team that is playing in the Super Bowl across the top to connect it with the columns, and then write the name of the NFC team along the left-hand side to connect it to the rows.

    • 5

      Use the score of the Super Bowl to determine your pool winner. Take the final digit of the AFC team's score and the final digit of the NFC's team score, and then locate the box on your grid where those numbers meet. For example, if the AFC team scored 21 points and the NFC team scored 17 points, your grid numbers are "1" and "7." Find the column labeled "1" across the top. Look down the column until you reach the row labeled "7." The person whose name is in the box on the grid where those numbers meet is your Super Bowl pool winner.