How to Make a Football Pool With 25 Squares

You can even start a pot with just a few of your friends.

Whether you're an avid football fan or a casual observer, creating and playing in a football squares pot is simple yet exciting. The beauty of a football squares pot is that so long as there is a football game and willing participants, you can start a pot. It also generates interest and enthusiasm whether you're watching your favorite team or your favorite team's fiercest rival.

Things You'll Need

• Hat
• Paper
• Pen
• Printer (optional)

Instructions

1. Create a 25-square grid on a piece of paper. The playing grid will be a 5 x 5 square.

2. Make two rectangles above each square on the top of the grid and the left side of the grid. You should have 10 rectangles on the top and left portions of the grid. This will be where you put the numbers that you draw out of a hat.

3. Label the top side of the grid with one of the teams and the left side of the grid with the other team.

4. Write the numbers 0 through 9 on a sheet of paper, tear off each number into a square and place each number into a hat.

5. Instruct the participants in the football pool to write their name in a square of their choice that is within the grid.

6. Start drawing the numbers out of the hat. Once you draw a number, leave it out of the hat. The first and second numbers you draw correspond to the first column of the grid. The third and forth numbers you draw correspond to the second column of the grid.

7. Repeat Step 6 until you have two numbers for each of the columns on the grid.

8. Repeat Steps 6 and 7 for the five rows of the grid.

Tips & Warnings

• In lieu of creating your own grid, you can print off a 25-square grid from the Internet.

• No participant will have a competitive advantage by choosing one square over another because the numbers she receives will be assigned at random after she chooses her square.

• Because a 25-square grid cannot account for all of the possible numbers that could occur in the second digit of a football team's score, each participant receives two numbers for each team instead of one number for each team.

• After each quarter, the participant whose numbers match the second digit of each team's score wins the pot.

References

• Print Your Brackets: NCAA Football 25 Square Grid