The Super Bowl is coming, the Super Bowl is coming! I'm not much of a football fan anymore, (I used to watch it religiously) so to be able enjoy the game even a little bit, I bought myself a $100 square in the office Super Bowl pool. Then, I got to thinking; what are my odds of winning. In order to figure that out, I went back to Super Bowls past and charted the 1st, 2nd and 3rd quarters and final scores of each contest. The results weren't altogether surprising, but there were a couple that stood out. If you're in one of these pools, you may want to read on.

Now, you know that the numbers in these pools are only the single digits 0-9. With that in mind, take a gander at these stats.

For instance, in 328 quarters;
Numbers least likely to come up, regardless of quarter: 5 (2.4% of the quarters), 2 (2.7%) and 8 (3%)
Most likely: 0 (27.7%; no surprise here), 7 (19.8%) and 3 (15.5%)

I was surprised to see that 5 came up less than 2, although only by a slim margin. Also, even though 5 came up in only 8 of 328 quarters (once every 10 games), the eventual champs won with a 5 in 4 of the 41 Super Bowls. That's half the time it's come up! Weird.

More?
Numbers least likely to come up for the final score, WINNERS: 8, 9 and 3 (all 7.3%)
Most likely, WINNERS: 4 (14.6%), 6 and 7 (12.2%)

I was also surprised when I saw the balance of all forty-one Super Bowl winners among all ten digits. Six times did the number 4 come up (the most), but, 6 and 7 came up five times, 0, 1, 2 and 5 came up four times and 8 and 9, three apiece. So, even though you might think you have bad numbers for the final, you've got just as good a chance as anyone. Almost. The problem is that the eventual losers haven't had the same balance.

Numbers least likely to come up for the final score, LOSERS: 2, 5 and 8 (0%; never)
Most likely, LOSERS: 7 (26.8%) and 0 (19.5%)

So, the losers have scored either 7 or 0 in almost half of the Championship games played and have NEVER had a score ending in 2, 5 or 8. EVER!

Other things worth mentioning:
In all first quarters, there has never been a 1, 2, 5, 8 or 9 scored and 6 has only been scored twice. If you have a 4, it's happened in six of eighty-two first quarters. Having those numbers in the first quarter means that you can probably start watching the game at about 6:30 instead.

Here are the most and least likely numbers to come up by quarter and winner and loser:
1st Q
0 - Winner
0 - Loser
No surprise here

2nd Q
7 - Winner
0 - Loser

3rd Q
4 - Winner
0 - Loser

FINAL
4 - Winner
7 - Loser

If you've ever had squares before, you know that 0, 7, 4 and 3 are good numbers. But, maybe you didn't know just how bad 2, 5 and 8 really are. And, at least, for the big money (the final score) if you have a 2, 5 or an 8 for one or both, well, there's always next year.