Indoor Football Weekly #24

Credit: Houston Chronicle

The 2017 indoor football season is in it's closing stages and all three leagues are now in their respective playoff races.

Two Weeks ago we looked at 2006, this week we'll be moving forward to 2007. All six leagues from 2006 came back with the AIFL now being renamed the AIFA and the GLIFL being renamed the Continental Indoor Football League. These six would be joined by the new World Indoor Football League.
In the American Professional Football League, who had a controversial finish to it's 2006 season, which saw the Wichita Aviators stripped of home APFL Championship Game in favor of the Kansas Koyotes hosting it which led the Aviators to not play the Championship and leave the APFL. The league also lost the Nebraska Wildcats while the Conroe Storm, Springfield WolfPack, and Texas Regulators would be added to the league to bring the APFL back to six teams. The newly renamed AIFA, who had lost the Carolina Ghostriders and Syracuse Soldiers during the 2006 season lost a few more teams in the offseason. The Chattahoochee Valley Vipers, Richmond Bandits folded, the Steubenville Stampede would move to the CIFL, the Augusta Spartans, Daytona Beach Thunder, Raleigh Rebels and Rome Renegades had set to move to the WIFL but both Raleigh and Rome folded before the season started. The AIFA was brought back up to 14 teams as the Baltimore Blackirds, Carolina Speed, Danville Demolition, Pittsburgh RiverRats, Mississippi MudCats, and the Tallahassee Titans were added as expansion clubs while the Lakeland ThudnerBolts and Montgomery Maulers, now renamed the Bears, moved in from the NIFL. After 2006 the Great Lakes Indoor Football League was renamed the Continental Indoor Football League, with that name change came a massive (for the league) addition of franchises. Of the six GLIFL teams in 2006 only the Battle Creek Crunch did not return. At the same time nine teams, the Chesapeake Tide, Chicago Slaughter, Kalamazoo Xplosion, Miami Valley Silverbacks, Muskegon Thunder, New England Surge, Springfield Stallions, and Summit County Rumble were added as expansion teams while the Steubenville Stampede moved in from the AIFL. The Intense Football League, like the CIFL, saw 5 of it's 6 teams return with only the Laredo Lobos failing to return. The IFL would welcome three expansion teams, the Frisco Thunder, Katy Ruff Riders, and the first ever professional football team in Alaska the Alaska Wild, to setup an 8 team league for 2007. After a mess of a 2006 season in the National Indoor Football League 2007 managed to get even worse. With almost every well run team (nay for a few exceptions) bailing on the NIFL for other leagues and the addition of a plethora of league owned teams making up it's 24 team roster it looked great from the outset. We'll continue the rest shortly. United Indoor Football for the most part stayed level with a few changes such as the Fort Wayne Freedom suspending operations for one season while the af2 Fort Wayne Fusion played in town and the Peoria Rough Riders also suspending operations before rejoining the af2 in 2008. To get the league back up to 11 teams the RiverCity Rage and Billings Outlaws joined from the NIFL and the Colorado Ice were added as an expansion team. Finally last but not least was the new World Indoor Football League. The WIFL did not look good from the start as they had as many as 9 different teams planned to join the WIFL but only four the Augusta Spartans and Daytona Beach Thunder from the NIFL and the expansion Columbus Lions and Osceola Ghostriders actually played in the WIFL.
In the APFL the Regulators couldn't manage to find a home building and only played one road game, but that didn't stop the league from completing it's season. Kansas would finish first in the regular season with a record of 8-2. The Iowa Blackhawks would win the Semi-Final on the road against the Conroe Storm before dropping the APFL Championship 39-15 to Kansas. Heading east to the AIFA all the teams completed their season (including the road only Gulf Coast Raiders who only had three games scheduled. The top four teams from each division qualified for the playoffs. It wasn't an ultra competitive playoffs as the 1 seeds each cruised through the first two rounds. The AIFA Championship would be held in conjunction with an All Star Game in Florence, SC. The Lakeland ThunderBolts would take home the championship with a 54-59 win over the North Division Champion Reading Express. As well in the CIFL all of it's member teams completed their 12 game season. The playoff format was a bit odd as 6 teams qualified from the Great Lakes Division (made up of 8 teams) and just 4 made it in from the Atlantic Division (that only had 6 teams in it). And just like the AIFA it didn't matter too much as both number one seeds made it to the Championship. It was however a little odd as with the horrid attendance in Port Huron the Pirates 12-0 renamed themselves the Michigan Pirates before the playoffs and announce they would play all playoff games in Flint, MI. The Pirates declined to host the Championship game and a raucous crowd in Rochester saw the hometown Raiders down the Pirates 37-27 to win the CIFL Championship and hand the Pirates their first ever loss. The Intense Football League would again have a stable regular season, even with adding a team in Alaska. The Wild would finish dead last in the 8 team league that saw 4 teams compete in the playoffs. After Louisiana edged Odessa and Corpus Christi took down Frisco the two teams would meet for Intense Bowl III. The Sudduth Coliseum would be no place for the road team as the Louisiana Swashbucklers demolished the Corpus Christi Hammerheads. The National Indoor Football League however was nowhere near as lucky as the other leagues. Just a few games into the season 10 teams either defected or were kicked out of the league and would play the rest of the season as independents. The NIFL season concluded with the San Diego Shockwave being declared league champion while the Fayetteville Guard hosted and defeated the Wyoming Cavalry 48-34 in the Indoor Football Championship. United Indoor Football would have a much more successful 2007 season as they saw the league consolidate into 2 divisions with 4 making the playoffs from each one. The Sioux Falls Storm were unable to be matched and went 15-0 in the regular season before winning the Quarter-Final and Semi-Final. The Storm capped off a playoff run with a 62-59 win at home in United Bowl III against the Lexington Horsemen to win their third straight championship and finishing with an unblemished 18-0 record. Last was the four team World Indoor Football League which played a 14 game season. Even though the WIFL had only four teams, three qualified for the playoffs which saw Augusta defeat Osceola in the Semi-Final before defeating the top seeded Columbus Lions 63-60 to win what would be the only World Indoor Bowl.

Credit: Indoor Football League

Week 13 of the IFL saw almost a full slate of games as eight teams took the field to play four games. The week opened up with two games on Friday starting with the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles hosting the Colorado Crush. The (hopefully) final ever matchup between these teams owned by the ill-fated Project Fanchise saw Salt Lake take the win 38-37 over Colorado. Out West was the second game of the night as the Spokane Empire hosted the Arizona Rattlers in the IFL Game of the Week. In true Rattler fashion the visiting Arizona team did everything they could and pulled out a nice 49-35 win over the Empire. Saturday saw two more games played with the Iowa Barnstormers hosting the in-state rival Cedar Rapids Titans for what could be a final time. The Titans kept it close all night but the Barnstormers took a 56-54 win off a Dee Maggitt Jr. pick six, the second straight home game he has done this. In Green Bay where the Blizzard played host to the Storm from Sioux Falls it was a different scenario. Once the Storm got going they never stopped and took a huge 44-24 win over Green Bay. It's now a three team playoff race in each division in the IFL with Nebraska, Arizona, and Spokane battling for the Intense Conferences spots and Iowa, Wichita Falls, and Sioux Falls duking it out in the United Conference.
Week 14 will feature a full slate of games opening up on Thursday night as the Colorado Crush host the Spokane Empire at 6PM CT. Saturday has the other four games with three being played at 7:05 PM CT. In the north the Sioux Falls Storm will host the Cedar Rapids Titans. Down south just a bit sees the Nebraska Danger hosting the Green Bay Blizzard. And in the Lone Star State the Wichita Falls Nighthawks host the Iowa Barnstormers, the winner takes the #2 spot in the United Conference and takes the edge for that second playoff spot. Finally wrapping up the week is the Arizona Rattlers hosting the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles at 8 PM CT.

Credit: Champions Indoor Football

Champions Indoor Football gave us another good set of games playing 6 games over three days.  The week opened on Friday night  with the Wichita Force beating the Salina Liberty 36-17. Saturday night saw four of the six being played. Omaha would survive a scare in Muskegon beating the West Michigan Ironmen 44-41 and clinching a playoff spot. Dodge City, KS got to play host to the CIF Game of the Week as the Law hosted the Duke City Gladiators. In a back and forth game the Law would overcome the Gladiators 65-62. In Independence, MO the Kansas City Phantoms hosted the Bismarck Bucks. The hometown Phantoms had just enough stealth to hunt down the Bucks taking a 42-39 victory in the process. Last but not least on Saturday was the Amarillo Venom hosting the Texas Revolution. However during the game a fan fell ill and players from both squads helped out the EMT. The Venom just couldn't overcome the Revs and Texas pulled out a 68-61 win. Last but not least was the Dallas Marshals traveling to Belton, TX to play the CenTex Cavalry. The Cavalry came out charging like never before but the Marshals would take a 58-52 win back to Mesquite.
Week 13 of Champions Indoor Football gives us another six games starting out on Friday night at 7PM CT with two games. Both games are in Texas and feature the CenTex Cavalry hosting the Amarillo Venom in Belton, TX and up in Allen, TX the Texas Revolution host the Duke City Gladiators. Saturday features the other four games on the CIF slate opening at 11AM CT when the Bloomington Edge host the Salina Liberty. At 7PM CT the other three games will be played with a Northern Division clash between the hosting Sioux City Bandits and Bismarck Bucks. In Ralston, NE the Omaha Beef host the West Michigan Ironmen. Finally it wraps up in Texas with the Dallas Marshals hosting the Wichita Force. All games can of course be seen on Eversport.

Credit: National Arena League

The National Arena League had just one game with the Corpus Christi Rage taking on the Monterrey Steel. Monterrey would barely beat a bad Corpus Christi Rage by a score of 33-30.
Week 10 has three games scheduled for NAL play while originally being scheduled for  four games. Well earlier this week the NAL cancelled the game between the Georgia Firebirds and league run Corpus Christi Rage. Per the Rage the Firebirds didn't want to travel and canceled the game but both teams have horrid attendance and will be lucky to make it to 2018. All three games are scheduled for Saturday night at 6 PM CT. The High Country Grizzlies host the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks in Boone, NC. Down in Jacksonville the Sharks will host the Monterrey Steel and lastly the Columbus Lions host the Wolfpack.

Last week we had some tight ones in for the Game of the Week and this week the IFL and CIF co-open the Game of the Week. Starting with the CIF we'll see the Duke City Gladiators try and pull off a playoff helping win over the red hot Texas Revolution. The IFL Game of the Week is also playoff implicating as well with a United Conference battle between the Wichita Falls Nighthawks and Iowa Barnstormers. Finishing it all off is the NAL Game of the Week as the High Country Grizzlies host the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks. The IFL and NAL can be seen on YouTube while the CIF can be seen on Eversport.