Indoor Football Weekly #28: The Final Countdown

Credit: Billings Gazette

Here we are, the final week of the 2017 Indoor Football Regular Season as both the IFL and NAL wrap up their seasons and the CIF has the division championships this weekend.

Credit: Indoor Football League

The Indoor Football League had a thriller of a Week 17 with all 10 teams playing and two teams, the Cedar Rapids Titans and Green Bay Blizzard wrapping up their seasons. Opening Week 17 on Friday night was the IFL Game of the Week between the Iowa Barnstormers and Spokane Empire. Iowa took the lead early and wouldn't give it up the entire night taking a 58-28 win over Spokane. Saturday night had three more games get played starting up north in Green Bay the Blizzard hosted the Screaming Eagles with the Blizzard winning 37-34 over Salt Lake. In the middle Sioux Falls hosted Nebraska, a team all to familiar with the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. The Storm just barely made it out alive winning 41-38 over the Danger. In the south the Wichita Falls Nighthawks played host to the Colorado Crush, a team who in their last encounter got the best of the Nighthawks. The Nighthawks just like the Storm barely escaped with a 54-52 win over the Crush. Wrapping up the week was a game that had absolutely ZERO playoff implications as the Arizona Rattlers hosted the Cedar Rapids Titans. The Rattlers squashed the Titans with a 56-25 win.
Week 18 wraps up the 2017 IFL regular season with four games being played. Friday night has two games being played, both with 8 PM CT start times. Out in the Rocky Mountains the Colorado Crush (3-12) host the Arizona Rattlers (11-4). To the west of the Rockies the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles (4-11) host the Spokane Empire (8-7) in a do or die game for the Empire, win and you have a chance at the playoffs, lose and your done. Saturday has two games at 7 PM CT both with HUGE playoff implications. In Des Moines the Iowa Barnstormers (13-2) host the Sioux Falls Storm (13-2) in what is a de facto United Conference Semi-Final. Win and you're in and host the United Conference Championship lose and you better hope Nebraska beats Wichita Falls. That brings up the final game as the Nebraska Danger (8-7) host the Wichita Falls Nighthawks (12-3) in another win and you're in and for Wichita Falls you lose you're out and for Nebraska lose and you're out if Spokane won the night before.

Credit: Champions Indoor Football

Champions Indoor Football kicked off the 2017 playoffs last week with the Division Semi-Finals. In the Northern Division the #1 Sioux City Bandits hosted the #4 Bismarck Bucks and the #2 Omaha Beef hosted the #3 Bloomington Edge. In Sioux City the Bandits massacred the Bucks 82-43. Down in Omaha the Beef bested the Edge with a 43-30 win. In the Southern Division the #1 Amarillo Venom hosted the #4 Duke City Gladiators and the #2 Texas Revolution hosted the #3 Dodge City Law. Duke City took two fan busses from Albuquerque, NM to Amarillo, TX for the game and the Venom came into the game against Duke City having beaten them three times by a combined 6 points. That's not how it end this time as the Venom beat the Gladiators 70-41 sending the players and fans on a long ride back home. Even with all the things going on in the background the Law made their way down to Allen, TX to take on the Revs. The Law fought their hardest but the Revs came out with a 63-59 win.
This weekend is the Division Championships and both divisions saw their #1 and #2 seeds advance. The North Division Championship sees the #1 Sioux City Bandits (10-3) hosting the #2 Omaha Beef (8-5) on Saturday at 7 PM CT. Sioux City dominated the regular season series winning all three games. This is the Beef's first shot at a Championship Game let alone playoff appearance since 2013 in the CPIFL where they lost to Wichita in the Semi-Finals. Sioux City on the other hand has their third shot at a Championship Game in that same period of time. The Southern Division Championship has the #1 Amarillo Venom (10-3) hosting the #2 Texas Revolution (9-4) on Monday night at 7 PM CT. In the regular season the teams had 3 tight games in which Amarillo took the first game, which was the Revs first loss of the season, while Texas took the next two. This game is the Revs 3rd chance to go to a Championship Game in 3 years while Amarillo is coming off a CIF Champions Bowl II loss last year to Wichita. All games can of course be seen on Eversport.

Credit: National Arena League

Lastly we head off east to the National Arena League where Week 13 gave us a 3 course set of games starting on Saturday with Jacksonville hosting High Country and Georgia hosting Lehigh Valley. In North Florida the Grizzlies stood no chance in "The Shark Tank" and were taken down handily by a score of 66-18. In Albany, GA the Firebirds, just like the Grizzlies, were no match for the opponents as the Steelhawks soared to an easy 51-26 win. Wrapping up the Week on Monday night was the NAL Game of the Week between the Monterrey Steel and Columbus Lions in Monterrey, MX. In what was a very close and tough game the Lions just edged the Steel 49-42.
In the news we have a cancelled game this week as the scheduled game between the High Country Grizzlies and Corpus Christi Rage will not be played due to the Rage folding. This is the second time this season a game between the Rage and a visiting opponent has been cancelled.
Week 14 will wrap up with just two games this week both at 6 PM CT on Saturday night. The first has the Jacksonville Sharks (11-0) hosting the Monterrey Steel (6-4) in what is a preview of an NAL Semi-Final playoff game. The second is between the Georgia Firebirds (2-8) and the Columbus Lions (8-3).

It's the Final Week of the year with our Game of the Week segment. The Final NAL Game of the Week for 2017 opens up things as the Jacksonville Sharks host the Monterrey Steel in a playoff preview game. Wrapping things up is a do or die game in the IFL between the Iowa Barnstormers and Sioux Falls Storm for the IFL Game of the Week.

This week we also have something new it's called Best of the Arenas. Starting this week and going for the next 6 weeks/posts you readers will be able to vote on the Best Arena in Indoor Football. The best way to do so is of course to have watched game via streaming or live. The best ways to determine the quality of the Arena is 1) In Arena Experience (Atmosphere+Attendance), 2) In Arena quality (Turf, Dashers, viewing angles etc), and 3) Miscellaneous (Anything not covered that could bring the quality up or down). As only 31 teams that started the season had arenas to call home and there are actually a few legit teams outside the CIF, IFL, and NAL we are starting with a Play-In Round of 4 arenas/teams to get to a total of 32. Those are the American Bank Center in Corpus Christi, TX home of the Corpus Christi Rage of the National Arena League. Second is the Germain Arena in Estero, FL home of the Florida Tarpons of Arena Pro Football and one of 3 At-Large bids. Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington, VT home of the Vermont Bucks of the Can-Am Indoor Football League and the 2nd At-Large bid. And finally the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, VA home of the Richmond Roughrider of Arena Pro Football (and it's league Champion) and the 3rd At-Large bid. You can access the poll i on the top right of the page and blog. It will be open until 6/21/17 at 11:59 PM.