Rivalry Week Football Squares: Bigger Boards

A division game hits different. When the Eagles play the Cowboys, or the Bears line up against the Lions, there's a decade of bad blood in the room before kickoff. People who barely watch football suddenly have opinions. Your uncle who roots for whoever's winning picks a side and digs in. That energy is what rivalry week football squares feed on, and you're wasting it if there's no board in the room.

Rivalry games are the best squares nights of the year, and it's not close. A random Week 3 matchup between two teams your group doesn't care about fills slowly and nobody checks the score. A grudge match fills itself. The trash talk does your marketing for you.

Why a rivalry game is the easiest board you'll ever fill

The hardest part of running squares is getting people to actually claim their squares. On a normal week you're texting reminders and chasing down the three stragglers who said they'd "get to it later." On a rivalry week that problem mostly disappears, because people want in before you even finish explaining the rules.

Think about who shows up for a Cowboys-Eagles game. You've got the die-hards on both sides, the neutrals who just like a good fight, and the folks who are there for the food and the arguing. All three of those groups will happily claim a square if you make it easy. The rivalry gives everyone a reason to care about the number in a box, even people who couldn't tell you who's playing quarterback.

The 2026 Thanksgiving slate is a perfect example. Bears at Lions in the early window, Eagles at Cowboys in the afternoon, and Chiefs at Bills at night. That's three built-in rivalry boards in one day, with a crowd already parked on the couch. If you only run one board all season, run it on a day like that.

Turn one game into a bigger board

Here's where most people stop short. They set up a standard 100-square grid, keep it simple, and call it done. A rivalry game can carry more than that, so build for it.

Start with the obvious move: open every quarter as its own payout instead of just paying the final score. A 10x10 grid gives you four natural checkpoints (end of the first, halftime, end of the third, and final), and a rivalry game that's close through the fourth keeps everyone glued to their square until the last snap. If the game's a blowout, the quarter payouts still keep people interested, because the losing side still has a quarter to root for.

If your crowd is big enough, run a second board for the same game with fresh numbers. Two grids, two sets of winners, double the squares people can grab. The randomized numbers mean the two boards play out completely differently off the same score, so nobody feels like they're playing the same board twice. We walk through the mechanics of multiple boards and payout splits in our guide to running football squares, if you want the full breakdown.

The last ingredient is theme. A rivalry board is allowed to have a personality. Name it something that pokes the other side. Let people pick squares "for" their team even though the numbers are random, because the illusion of loyalty makes the whole thing more fun. When the Lions fan wins off a Bears number, the groaning is half the entertainment.

Keep the numbers honest

The one rule you cannot bend on a rivalry night is this: numbers get assigned randomly, after every square is claimed. Not before. If people pick their squares knowing the digits, you'll have a riot when someone claims they were robbed of the lucky 0-7 corner. Rivalry crowds are already looking for something to argue about, so don't hand them a real grievance.

Randomizing after the grid fills is the whole point of the game. A 0 or a 7 is worth more than a 2 or a 5 because of how football scores land, and if numbers were up for grabs, the folks who've done this before would hoard the good ones. Random assignment means the quiet aunt who grabbed a square to be polite has the same shot as the guy who's been running pools since college. That fairness is why squares works at a party where not everyone is a football nerd. If the scoring math is new to you, our beginner's guide to football squares lays out why certain digits win more often.

Division games beyond the NFL

Rivalry week isn't only an NFL thing, and your board doesn't have to be either. College football lives on rivalries, and the late-November rivalry weekend is a goldmine. Any game that ends with a score on the board can carry a grid, so a college crowd watching their school's biggest game of the year is just as good a reason to set one up as any Sunday.

Basketball counts too. A heated conference matchup, a playoff series, a buzzer-beater rivalry in the NBA, all of it maps onto the same 100 squares. The only product we run that's locked to one sport is bracket pools, which are March Madness only (men's and women's NCAA tournaments). Everything else you'd want a squares board for, you can set one up. If a March bracket is more your speed, the March Madness bracket pool guide covers that side of things.

Keep it fun, keep it legal

Quick note, because it matters: we don't process money on the site. PickMySquare runs the board, tracks the squares, assigns the numbers, and shows the winners. How your group settles up, whether that's a snack pool, a few bucks, or pure bragging rights, is between you and your people, same as it's always been with a paper grid on the office fridge. We just make the grid better. Keep your pool friendly, keep it among people you know, and you're running the same game families have run for decades.

Rivalry Week Football Squares FAQ

What is rivalry week in football squares?
There's no official "rivalry week" on the schedule. It's just any week with a big grudge match, a division game, or a historic matchup like Eagles-Cowboys or a college rivalry weekend. Those games make the best squares boards because the crowd already cares.

How many squares should a rivalry board have?
A standard board is 100 squares (a 10x10 grid). For a big rivalry crowd, spin up a second board for the same game with its own random numbers so more people can play, or open all four quarters as separate payouts to keep everyone watching.

Do the numbers really need to be random?
Yes, always. Numbers get assigned after every square is claimed, never before. That's what keeps it fair and stops people from fighting over the lucky digits. On a rivalry night where everyone's already chirping, a real grievance is the last thing you want.

Can I run squares for a college rivalry game?
Absolutely. Squares work for any game with a score, so college football rivalry weekend is one of the best times to run a board. NBA, NHL, and NCAA games all work the same way.

Is there a bracket pool for the NFL playoffs?
No. Bracket pools on PickMySquare are March Madness only (the men's and women's NCAA tournaments). For NFL playoff games, including the Super Bowl, you'd run a squares board, not a bracket.

How much does it cost to set up a board?
Nothing. Creating a board is free. You set the squares, share the link, and we handle the grid and the random numbers. Whatever your group decides about a snack pool or settling up is up to you, since we don't touch the money.