We'll start off by traveling back in time, this week to 2003. The NIFL would enter it's third season but we have a second league join the fray, the American Professional Football League. The NIFL had lost three teams and had two re-brand from 2002 and had six new expansion clubs. The APFL on the other hand was nowhere near as big or as spread out. The league, based entirely in the Central United States, announced four clubs, but only ended up having three take the field for it's inaugural season. Having a small amount of teams is something the APFL would be known for, for much of it's history. The NIFL would again see 14 games played and 8 teams compete in the playoffs for a spot in Indoor Bowl III. The Ohio Valley Greyhounds would host Indoor Bowl III at WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, WV against the Utah Warriors. Looking to repeat as champions and finish the season a perfect 17-0, Ohio Valley succeeded with a 45-37 win. The APFL on the other hand having just 3 clubs playing 8 games would see the Kansas Koyotes host the Missouri Minutemen for the 2003 Championship at Landon Arena. Kansas would take the game 59-29 to win the first APFL Championship and have a perfect 9-0 season. Out of all of those clubs only three still exist and one market has a new club while all the rest are long gone.
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| Credit: Indoor Football League |
On now to the IFL, after only having two games in Week 3, all 10 teams are back in action for Week 4. Now before we report the games from Week 3, some news we missed from last week. The Salt Lake Screaming Eagles, just days after winning their first game and in what was a thrilling overtime win fired head coach William McCarthy for "philosophical differences pertaining to management of the team". In other words he was fired for wanting to coach like a normal head coach and not have his team be fan run, but Project FANchise didn't like this and threw him out the door. After firing McCarthy on March 1st they would start looking for a new head coach and on March 6th announced that "indoor football veteran head coach" Matt Sauk would take over the Screaming Eagles. This is hilarious as Sauk, who was an AFL/af2 journeyman quarterback, has no experience in indoor football, only the AFL as a coach, and yes there is a HUGE difference. Sauk, who as an AFL head coach, had a full season with the reigns of the Portland Thunder and a partial year as interim head coach of the Utah Blaze. With that said Sauk has a poor record of 5-13 as an Arena Football head coach, yep that bad of a record but he's not really coaching anyway so let's see how bad Salt Lake finishes.
Now with the games in Week 3, Friday saw our IFL Game of the Week being played at the Kay Yeager Coliseum with Spokane taking on Wichita. That game was crazy in absolutely every way, penalty flags being thrown seemingly random, missed calls, the ball was seemingly sentient at times. There is no way to really review this game you'll have to watch it! The game looked like a circus, or another quote I got was "The Twilight Zone on Drugs" and there are no better words for it! Wichita Falls would win the game 57-56 in a crazy Double-OT that only fit the game itself. The matchup on Sunday saw Nebraska take down the Colorado Crush handily with a final score of 54-36.
We again have the IFL POWER RANKINGS by Banana Cat, starting out at #1 is the Sioux Falls Storm (2-0), #2 Wichita Falls Nighthawks (3-0), #3 Spokane Empire (1-1), and #4 Iowa Barnstormers (1-1). The rest are as follows 5) Arizona, 6) Nebraska, 7) Green Bay, 8) Salt Lake, 9) Colorado, and 10) Cedar Rapids.
Week 4 starts out on Saturday at 7:05 PM CT with Arizona hosting Colorado, Cedar Rapids hosting Wichita Falls, and Nebraska hosting Sioux Falls. Sunday at 3:05 PM Iowa travels to Green Bay and the week wraps up on Monday night when Spokane heads to Salt Lake at 8:00 PM CT. As always the games can be seen LIVE and FREE on YouTube.
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| Credit: Champions Indoor Football |
Last week, the CIF opened Week 2 (it's first real week of league play) on Friday night. The weeks opener saw last year's North Division Runner-Up the Bloomington Edge take on an expansion team and last year's AIF Runner-Up West Michigan Ironmen. It would not be good for the Ironmen as they would be crushed into the Edge's red turf 64-20. On Saturday the Dodge City Law hosted the Duke City Gladiators in the CIF Game of the Week. The Law would come out on top by a score of 59-52, in what was a back and forth clash all night. The other expansion team was also playing on Saturday night when Bismarck traveled to Sioux City. The Bucks fate was the same as the Ironmen, the Bandits successfully hunted down the Bucks with a final score of 77-37. The third game Saturday night was an All-Texas affair as the expansion CenTex Cavalry took on the second year Dallas (formerly Mesquite) Marshals. At the Mesquite Arena, the Marshals would be the superior officers with a 55-37 win. Week 2 was capped off on Sunday from Salina's Bicentennial Center when the Liberty hosted the defending champion Wichita Force. Salina held the Force to a close game but just couldn't finish with a W and the Force won by a score of 55-43.
After capping off Week 2 it's time for the CIF POWER RANKINGS by Banana Cat. Moving into the #1 spot is the Texas Revolution, Wichita has dropped down to #2, Sioux City stays solid at #3 and Bloomington stays at #4. The rest are as follows 5) Amarillo, 6) Dodge City, 7) Duke City, 8) Omaha, 9) Kansas City, 10) Bismarck, 11) Dallas, 12) Salina, 13) CenTex, 14) West Michigan.
Week 3 this week kicks off on Friday when the Salina Liberty head to take on the Omaha Beef from the Ralston Arena at 7:05 PM CT. Saturday has three games starting at 7:05 PM when Bismarck takes on West Michigan on the road. An all Kansas showdown takes place at 7:05 PM from the INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita, when the Force host the Law. And at 8:05 PM CT Duke City hosts Amarillo from the Tingley Coliseum. Champions Indoor Football has a Monday Night game this week when Bloomington takes on Kansas City in the Phantoms first game in franchise history. All games can be seen live on Eversport.
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| Credit: National Arena League |
That's right the National Arena League FINALLY kicks off this week, well sort of. But it finally means it's time for our 2017 National Arena League preview! The NAL has a very brief preseason consisting of just 2 games and 3 teams on a single day. The Georgia Firebirds will host the Jacksonville Sharks in Albany, GA and the Monterrey Steel play the Cap City Bulls both on Thursday March 9th.
The Teams
The National Arena League will be playing it's first season with 8 clubs all originally scheduled to play a 12 game season, well that will not be happening.
Let's start with the Jacksonville Sharks one of the now 4 former AFL clubs to have bolted from the league. The Sharks will be playing a full 12 game schedule with 8 home games and just 4 road games. Jacksonville is the easy favorite to win the NAL Championship.
Next up is the Columbus Lions, the Lions have won a Championship in 2015 in the PIFL and 2016 in the AIF. Columbus is an easy favorite to play Jacksonville in the championship will also play 12 games but only 6 at home. Yes the NAL has an unbalanced schedule and it gets worse.
Lehigh Valley Steelhawks, our pick for the third playoff spot is next to cover. The Steelhawks make their home at the PPL Center in Allentown, PA quite a distance from anyone else in the NAL. Lehigh Valley fell last season in the AIF Northern Conference Championship to West Michigan last season. The Steelhawks will play just 10 Games with 6 home games, down from the 12 originally scheduled.
Then comes the next three teams, the Corpus Christi Rage, High Country Grizzlies, and Monterrey Steel, These clubs are ALL expansion teams and will be fighting for that fourth and final playoff spot. All three clubs will play 11 games this season, while both High Country and Monterrey will play 6 home games while Corpus Christi will play just 5 games at home.
Finally the last two teams in the league, who more than likely will be fighting to keep out of the cellar are the Georgia Firebirds and the um "Dayton" *cough cough Atlanta* Wolfpack. The Firebirds play out of Augusta, GA and like Columbus and Lehigh Valley played in the AIF in 2016. There is one major difference between Georgia and the other two clubs, that is that #1 Georgia was terrible, in fact they fired their first head coach after just one game. Even with the new coach they went 3-4 and even had to forfeit a game to the Savannah Steam due to "transportation issues". Georgia will, like Columbus, play 12 games with 6 home games, "Dayton", the other team fighting to stay out of the cellar, will only play 7 games, all on the road. As we covered a few weeks ago the Dayton Wolfpack, who had been said for quite a while to be playing at the Nutter Center, was folded and replaced by a travel only team based out of Atlanta assuming the Dayton name.
Games to Watch
Unlike the CIF and IFL who have league wide streaming the NAL, like the AIF and PIFL the last two seasons, puts streaming solely in the hands of the home club. The first game to watch of course is when Jacksonville travels to Columbus to take on the Lions to open the season on March 17th. Other games are really any when Columbus, Jacksonville, or Lehigh Valley play each other. Those games will also occur on April 1st (Lehigh Valley vs Jacksonville), April 9th (Lehigh Valley vs Columbus), and April 29th (Jacksonville vs Columbus).
After quite a week last week, this weeks games have a lot to live up too. This week the IFW IFL Game of the Week was a hard choice as most of the games look, well not great. But this week the will feature a Sunday matinee at 3:05 PM when the Iowa Barnstormers travel to take on the Green Bay Blizzard at the Resch Center. Both clubs enter the game with a record of 1-1 chasing both Wichita Falls and Sioux Falls in the United Conference. Our IFW CIF Game of the Week features two 1-0 teams in an All-Kansas showdown when the Dodge City Law head to the INTRUST Bank Arena to take on the Wichita Force on Saturday night at 7:05 PM. The CIF game is available on Eversport while the IFL game is available FREE on YouTube. And of course if your up for trying at the pick-em it's located here.
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