Carrie don't worry about the 'spread'. The spread or 'line' is made by the oddsmaker to even the playing field, bookmakers want to see the same amount of money bet on either side, to do that they encourage people to bet on the underdog by 'giving' them points - those are the 'spread' points - if a team is the underdog you will see a plus sign and a number i.e. +3.5 - means the underdog at the end of the game gets 3.5 points added to its score.
The oddsmakers are very smart, what it means is that pretty much each game could go either way, so picking randomly by any method u like i.e. favorite city, eenie meenie miney moe stands you as good a chance as 99% of the others. There are people who can consistently beat the odds.
As for a Survivor pool......... maybe. If somebody will step up and put up a Survivor prize
