Indoor Football Weekly #10 Preseason 2017, Part 2: Champions Indoor Football

Credit: Our Sports Central

One preseason has started and one is about to begin this week. The Indoor Football League preseason started last week and even had a game (we'll recap that later) and the CIF preseason starts this week with another game!

As we did last week, we're covering the history of indoor football as a special for the 20th Season for the sport. After the 1998 season the PIFL would fold and break up in to two leagues. One league (the IPFL) would take the remnants of the Honolulu Hurricanes (now the Hawaii Hammerheads), the Colorado Wildcats (now the Rocky Mountain Thunder) and the '98 PIFL Champion Louisiana Bayou Beast along with 3 expansion clubs. The (original) IFL was founded by the Green Bay Bombers and Madison Mad Dogs owner Keary Ecklund with those clubs and 6 expansion teams. The IPFL would play 16 games and see all 6 clubs survive the regular season. In the championship game Hawaii would beat the Texas Terminators by a score of 28-16 to win the IPFL title. However at the end of the season only 2 clubs (Idaho and Mississippi) would ring in the new millennium with the IPFL. On the other hand the IFL would play a 12 game schedule in 1999 and it would go much better than the IPFL. In the '99 IFL Gold Cup, Green Bay would travel to Peoria and bomb the Pirates with a 63-60 win. All 8 clubs (plus a few expansion clubs) would come back for the 2000 season. As with '98 there are no clubs left from the 1999 season and only 2 markets still have the indoor game. Green Bay (as we covered last time) and the only addition to them is Dayton. Dayton will have an expansion team (the Dayton Wolfpack) in the new NAL, while they have not announced their arena the Nutter Center at Wright State University is expected to be their home since the Hara Arena has closed.

Now back to the current day and age. As we covered last week the IFL preseason has begun and it opened this past weekend on Saturday night when the Iowa Barnstormers traveled to the US Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids to take on the Titans. The Barnstormers would take down the Titans 38-26 on the road. An overall sloppy game with both teams needing to clean a lot up before the regular season, but that can only be expected after just four days of practice. This weekend will see the second (and only other) preseason game is this Saturday when the Wichita Falls Nighthawks host the SIF's travel only Cap City Bulls at the Kay Yeager Coliseum.

Champions Indoor Football, the second of three stops on the 2017 preseason preview. The CIF has preseason game starting this weekend (Feb 12th) and going through the first week of the regular season (Feb 26th). After all the exhibitions are played half of the league (7/14) clubs will have played an exhibition game, and unlike the IFL all the games are against Non-League opponents.

Northern Division

The CIF's Northern Division sees 4 of 6 clubs return to it from 2016 (Wichita was moved to the Southern and Chicago folded) along with three expansion clubs. These clubs include two completely new expansion teams the Bismarck Bucks and Kansas City Phantoms along with 2016 AIF runner up the West Michigan Ironmen. With Wichita's move to the South the Northern Division will have unmatched parity that normally isn't seen in this sport. Bloomington, Sioux City, and Omaha all finished last season at 7-5. Look for Sioux City (who won the CIF in 2015 to continue to compete along with Omaha and Kansas City to challenge for first throughout the season. As of right now I think the other four clubs, including the expansion clubs will be fighting for third place. 

Southern Division

The South of the CIF is the total opposite of the North, and it starts with the defending league champion Wichita Force along with the two best from last year's Southern Division the Amarillo Venom and Texas Revolution. Those clubs have a good chance at finishing 1-2-3. Dodge City and Duke City will have a fight on their hands to get into one of the playoff spots. Dallas (formerly Mesquite) and the expansion CenTex Cavalry will have some work to not finish in the cellar in 2017.

Games to Watch

Unfortunately with just a few days until the preseason games starting no streaming for the 2017 CIF Season has been announced. Last season the streaming was free with Eversport but hopefully the CIF moves elsewhere and keeps it free. As for what to watch the season opener between Sioux City and Omaha is definitely the first one to watch in 2017. The next is the Week 9 matchup between the Texas Revs and the Amarillo Venom. I also wouldn't count out any of the in the final 3 weeks of the season as they will be the key to the playoffs.

As with the IFL preseason starting last week, Champions Indoor Football's preseason games start this week. The Omaha Beef will host the Omaha Outlaws this Sunday February 12th. We'll have one more preseason preview with the National Arena League in a few weeks!