I’m in a football pool. Interestingly enough, my fiance and I were in the same pool long before we met.

I don’t know about all football pools, but this one is pretty basic. You have 16 numbers, and you pick the winner of each game based on your certainness of a team winning. So if you are absolutely positively certain a team will win, you put them in 16. If you’re not sure and it’s more of a coin flip, you put them in the 1.

This is my third season in this pool. I’ve won once each season. It’s only $2 to play, and if you win, you get around $100, give or take. So I’m definitely up. When I started playing, I decided that I needed a strategy. Whether it was I picked names that sounded good, or went strickly by favorites or point spreads…I just needed a strategy. So I thought about it and thought about it, and I decided that since home teams have a slight advantage, I would pick all the home teams.

Before you tell me what a bad idea that is, my fiance has already beaten you to the punch. He reminds me numerous times during the year that all home teams have only one once in so many years. All the home teams winning is not really what I’m looking for. What I’m looking for is most of the home teams winning, and a few upsets.

To add to my strategy, I take the home teams that are favored the most and put those at the top. Home teams that are favored the least go at the bottom.

I know it’s not perfect, but how can you argue with the fact that I’ve won once each season I’ve played? Hmm?