Road to Champions Bowl II (IV Maybe): Indoor Football Weekly #2

Well everyone we've had another eventful week in the world of Indoor Football. The train wreck of the AIF is um "chugging" along with yet another season (God willing the pain will end someday) while the CIF played it's final week of the regular season and will start it's playoffs this week while the IFL has only a few weeks left before there playoffs start.

Again let's start off with the AIF as they opening weekend of the playoffs provided us with two tight matchups and two blowouts (where as I was expecting all four to be blowouts. It started on Thursday when the burning ship of the Savannah Steam traveled to Estero, FL to take on the Tarpons, the game would end with a blowout 71-20 victory for the Tarpons and hopefully that burning ship in Savannah has sunk. The round would continue on Saturday when the New Mexico Stars traveled to Georgia to take on the Columbus Lions. New Mexico who only played 1 real game all season did put up a very good fight against the Lions but the final would be 49-37 in favor of the 8-0 Lions. Also on Saturday we say the Myrtle Beach Freedom travel all the way from South Carolina to Muskegon, MI to take on the expansion West Michigan Ironmen, it would be a long 2 way trip and game as the Ironmen struck hot metal against the Freedom winning 78-37. The final game would be played at the Family Arena in St. Charles, MO between the host River City Raiders and visiting Lehigh Valley Steelhawks, in another tight ballgame the Steelhawks would come out and win it late 54-52. The South Division final is set for this Saturday with the Columbus Lions hosting the Florida Tarpons, in the North Division the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks will travel to Muskegon to take on the West Michigan Ironmen, hopefully none of these teams fold before the games have been played.

Now in the CIF the playoffs have been set with the Texas Revolution getting the bye in the South Division and the Wichita Force getting the bye in the North. First round games will see the Amarillo Venom host the Dodge City Law on Saturday June 11th with the winner heading to Allen to play the Revs while the Bloomington Edge will host the defending champion Sioux City Bandits with the winner heading to Wichita to play the Force. With the CIF games this week I still have to pick Dodge City and Sioux City over the host clubs.

In the IFL with a few weeks left to go the playoff scenario in the United Conference has been determined with Sioux Falls securing the bye a few weeks ago and Cedar Rapids playing Wichita Falls with only the location of that game TBD. In the Intense Conference it looks a lot different as the Spokane Empire securing the bye but no oth places being determined yet it's still an Intense fight going on out West for those other spots. Games with playoff implications this week are all of them except for the Iowa @ Sioux Falls game because Iowa has been eliminated and Sioux Falls already has the bye guaranteed.

We'll be back next week with another recap of the week in this crazy sport we all love. Again I thank everyone over at Indoor Football Forum for a lot of this information!