February 6, 2016 9:59 PM CST
Super Bowl “Squares” Analysis
I’ve heard of a few people playing a game for the Super Bowl where you put your name in a square on a 10×10 grid. Each column and row gets a random number, 0-9. The last digit of the score at the end of each quarter determines who wins that square. So if the score was 7-0, whoever had the 7 column and the 0 row’s cell would win. If the score was 14-12, the 4 column and 2 row’s cell would win. It’s pretty simple, but if you’re still unclear, check out this page that has a few nice illustrations.
I thought I’d take a look at the last 49 results and analyze how often each square won. Here’s what I found.
End of Quarter 1
vs | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
7 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
End of Quarter 2
vs | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
7 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
9 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
End of Quarter 3
vs | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 |
5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
End of Quarter 4
vs | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
6 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
8 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Data: super-bowl-scores.xlsx, http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/history/boxscore/sbxx and a bunch of other similar pages.