It's a question that pops up every Super Bowl party, every March Madness bracket reveal, and frankly, any time a grid of numbers is laid out for a game of chance: 'Who goes on top of the football squares?' It’s a simple query, really, but it touches on a bit of a delightful mystery for many.
Let's be clear from the outset: in the traditional game of football squares, there's no inherent 'correct' team that must go on top. The beauty, and perhaps the mild frustration, of the game lies in its pure randomness. The numbers 0 through 9 are assigned to both the horizontal and vertical axes of the 10x10 grid, creating 100 squares. Each square represents a unique combination of the last digit of the score for each team at the end of each quarter (and sometimes halftime and the final score).
So, if you're playing with friends, the placement of team names is usually a matter of consensus, or sometimes, a friendly debate. Often, the home team might be placed along the top and the visiting team down the side, or vice versa. Some groups might even draw straws or flip a coin to decide. The key is that once the teams are assigned their positions (say, Team A across the top, Team B down the side), that assignment remains fixed for the entire game.
The magic happens when the game progresses. Let's say the score at the end of the first quarter is 14-7. You'd look for the square where the '4' (last digit of the home team's score) intersects with the '7' (last digit of the visiting team's score). Whoever owns that square wins that quarter's payout.
This is where the reference material, a Playing Pitch Strategy for the London Borough of Enfield, might seem a world away. It details strategies for sports facilities, outlining plans for football, rugby, cricket, and more. While it speaks to the infrastructure and planning of sports, it doesn't delve into the casual, often social, games played alongside the professional leagues. It's focused on the pitches themselves, the participation, and the policy around them, rather than the office pool or living room game.
But even in that strategic document, the fundamental concept of 'football' is present. The strategy acknowledges football as a key sport, outlining its importance for participation and public health. This underlying presence of football, the sport itself, is what gives rise to these ancillary games. The excitement of the game, the desire to be involved, even in a small, speculative way, is what fuels the popularity of football squares.
So, to circle back to the original question: what team goes on top? It's the team that your group decides will go on top. It's the home team, the away team, the team you have a hunch about, or simply the team that gets assigned there first. The real 'top' isn't a physical location on the grid, but the anticipation and shared experience of the game itself.
