Super Bowl XLIV is on Sunday and whether or not you like it or care about either team, you need to pick a side and predict which team you think will come out on top!

No need to know anything about sports to pick a winner. I pick teams based on their mascots, and either decide which one would win a fight, or just which one I think is coolest. It works for football, baseball, basketball, college sports, hockey… everything, and I have to say it usually works. I have a pretty good record.

Veterinary Pet Insurance (VPI) came up with a new way to predict a winner, once again, having nothing to do with the sport. VPI looked to their database of 475,000 pet names for the answers. They analyzed all the pet names and compared them to the names associated with both the Colts and the Saints, and then chose a Superbowl Champ. Here are their stats...pet names are in quotes.

Pets Named After the Indianapolis Colts

Team: "Colt" or "Colts" - 43
Quarterback:  "Manning" or "Peyton" or "Peyton Manning" - 106
Receiver: "Wayne" - 5
Current Stars: "Clark" or "Freeney" - 57
Former Stars: "Dickerson" - 0
Mascot: "Blue" - 7
Intangibles: "Dungee" or "Mora" - 9

Pets Named After theNew Orleans Saints

Team: "Saint" or "Saints" - 13
Quarterback:  "Brees" or "Drew" or "Drew Brees" - 32
Receiver: "Henderson" - 2
Current Stars: "Reggie Bush" or "Sharper" - 1
Former Stars: "Campbell" or "Archine Manning" - 22
Mascot: "Gumbo" - 20
Intangibles: "Payton" or "Ditka" - 140

VPI's Choice for Superbowl XLIV Winner

Coming in with more pets named after the team:

New Orleans Saints

My Prediction

...based on my highly scientific mascot matchup method:

Indianapolis Colts by a long shot

My Reasoning: A young horse (Blue) vs. an old Saint Bernard (Gumbo). Simply put, the young horse is bigger and can move faster than the old dog. We'll see if my little theory of picking a winner by mascots works out...