Indoor Football Weekly #15

Credit: Topeka Capital-Journal

Week Five on Indoor Football is coming up this week. A full month after the Indoor Football League and the sport kicked off the 2017 season, all leagues finally enter the regular season. Yes that's right the last league to start, the National Arena League kicks off this week!

Last week we covered 2003, this week we step into our time machine going back to 2004. This would be the first season in the history of the sport that more than two leagues we're active in the same year. Both the APFL and NIFL would return from 2003, they would be joined by the Texas-based Intense Football League. The APFL after having 3 clubs in 2003 would go to four for the 2004 season as the Iowa Blackhawks and Texas Thunder we're added after the St. Joseph Explorers folded. The NIFL would see the league jump to 25 teams and the Intense Football League would start off it's existence with six brand new teams all based in Texas. In the American Professional Football League with the Koyotes looking to repeat as Champions they would face the Missouri Minutemen once again for the title. This time it was an even worse beatdown as Kansas would win 64-6 over Missouri to finish the season 9-0 once again. The Intense Football League would see four of it's six teams qualify for the playoffs after playing a 16 game regular season. Intense Bowl I would see the Amarillo Dusters take down the Lubbock Lone Stars 62-47 and win an Indoor Football championship before heading off to arenafootball2 for 2005. Finally after another marathon 14 game season in the NIFL, which saw four teams fail to complete the entire season, 12 of it's teams would make the playoffs. Indoor Bowl IV would be the first time that Sioux Falls would make a league championship, however they dropped the game and NIFL Championship 59-38 to the Lexington Horsemen. As of 2017 only Amarillo (now the Venom in the CIF), Omaha, Sioux City, and Sioux Falls still exist.

Credit: Indoor Football League

The IFL's Week 4, for the first time all season had all 10 teams play in one weekend. Saturday saw three of the five games being played on that night alone. Wichita Falls would move to 4-0 on the season with a 42-23 road win over Cedar Rapids. Sioux Falls for the second time this season barely squeaked away with a last minute 42-28 road win over Nebraska. And in the final game Arizona hosted the Colorado Crush, and in blowout fashion won their first IFL game 71-27. Sunday afternoon saw our IFL Game of the Week played for Week 4, the Iowa Barnstormers traveled to Green Bay. At the Resch Center on Sunday afternoon Iowa took down the Blizzard 49-30 to move up to 2-1 on the season. And on Monday night a closer than expected game was seen when Spokane edged out Salt Lake 41-35.
Now on to the IFL POWER RANKINGS by Banana Cat, no positions have changed since last week so at #1 is Sioux Falls Storm (3-0), #2 Wichita Falls Nighthawks (4-0), #3 Spokane Empire (2-1), #4 Iowa Barnstormers (2-1). In the bottom six: 5) Arizona, 6) Nebraska, 7) Green Bay, 8) Salt Lake, 9) Colorado, 10) Cedar Rapids.
For Week 5 we have 6 teams playing 3 games. On Friday night Spokane heads to Colorado to take on the Crush at 8PM CT. With no games on Saturday the next matchup sees Green Bay (1-2) head to Cedar Rapids (0-3) at 3:05 PM CT. Finally it wraps up again with the IFL version of Monday Night Football when Sioux Falls (3-0) hosts Iowa (2-1) at 6:00 PM. And of course all the games are LIVE and FREE on YouTube!

Credit: Champions Indoor Football

In the CIF's Week 3 we got treated to plenty of games and some GREAT football from Champions Indoor Football! It opened on Friday with the only game of the night (from any league) when Omaha crushed Salina 76-44 at the Ralston Arena. The busiest day was definitely Saturday with three games, starting with Bismarck and West Michigan. In a very close game between two of the four expansion teams Bismarck took the game 40-33. Up next was the CIF Game of the Week for Week 3 between Wichita and Dodge City. In a back and forth game that would take until the very end to be decided the Law beat the Force 42-39! And wrapping up Saturday Amarillo traveled to Albuquerque taking on the Duke City Gladiators. Duke City, who was wearing uniforms honoring the old AAA PCL Albuquerque Dukes, lost in overtime on a 2 point conversion 70-69 to Amarillo. Wrapping up the week was the CIF's version of Monday Night Football when Bloomington headed to the Silverstein Eye Care Centers Arena to play the Kansas City Phantoms. The expansion Phantoms managed to hold their own against Bloomington, but fell 43-37 to the Edge.
Now for our CIF POWER RANKINGS thanks to Banana Cat, staying at the #1 spot (thanks to signing legendary IFL QB Chris Dixon) is the Texas Revolution, Sioux City has moved up one spot to #2, Bloomington has also moved up one spot to #3, and Amarillo has moved up one spot and into the top 4. The next 10 are: 5) Dodge City (up one spot), 6) Wichita (down 4 spots), 7) Omaha (up one spot), 8) Kansas City (up one spot), 9) Duke City (down two spots). The bottom five, 10) Bismarck, 11) Dallas, 12) Salina, 13) CenTex, and 14) West Michigan, have all stayed the same.
Jumping now to Week 4 we finally see all 14 teams play this week. Friday again sees just one game when Sioux City heads to Bismarck at 7PM. Saturday sees a whopping six games and that all starts at 5PM CT when Wichita plays on the road at Duke City, 6PM will see another all expansion game as Kansas City will travel to Muskegon, MI to play West Michigan. Yet another all Kansas showdown for Dodge City as the Law play in Salina at 6:30 PM CT. At 7PM CT alone, Omaha at Bloomington, Texas Revs (and QB Chris Dixon) play their first game of 2017 against CenTex, and last but not least Dallas will play the Venom in Amarillo. All games are viewable on Eversport.

Credit: National Arena League

And now the last league to kickoff it's 2017, and in this case inaugural campaign, the National Arena League opens play this weekend. Before we preview the games let's take a look at our NAL POWER RANKINGS by Banana Cat. at the top spot is the former AFL club, the Jacksonville Sharks, at #2 is the 2015 PIFL and 2016 AIF Champion Columbus Lions, #3 is the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks, and at #4 is the Monterrey Steel who have just signed former NFL'er Jacoby Jones. In the bottom four is 5) High Country Grizzlies, 6) Corpus Christi Rage, 7) Georgia Firebirds, and 8) the Atlanta based Wolfpack saying their from Dayton. Now for anyone who is new to the NAL or to Indoor Football Weekly, let's clear up the Atlanta/Dayton Wolfpack. Dayton had been announced as an expansion club for the then named Arena Development League, the ADL would change it's name to the NAL when Jacksonville joined the league. Nothing had ever been announced of an official lease for Dayton to play in the Nutter Center, the only Dayton area arena left that could host indoor football. Just about one month ago the Dayton Wolfpack we're folded by the National Arena League and replaced by an Atlanta based travel only team playing under the Dayton Wolfpack name. This had the effect of the league going from each team playing 12 games to Dayton playing 7 and other teams playing between 10 and 12 games.
Now that the Atlanta/Dayton fiasco is out of the way let's go to the games. Now another drawback to the NAL (other than it picking up where the AIF led off) is that each team controls their own streaming, not the league like the CIF and IFL. *UPDATE* As of around 6PM (CT) on 3/15/17 the National Arena League announced that they would partner with YouTube for the 2017 season. All games with the exception of Lions home games will be streamed on YouTube, Lions home games will be streamed via CTV Beam online at a price of $9.99 per home game or $49.99 for the season. The NAL opens play with by far it's biggest game of the year on Friday at 6PM CT when the Columbus Lions host the Jacksonville Sharks. Saturday has two more games played as the High Country Grizzlies travel to Albany, GA to play the Georgia Firebirds and the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks host Atlanta (playing as the Dayton Wolfpack). The NAL also caps off the week with it's version of Monday Night Football when the Monterrey Steel host the Corpus Christi Rage.

For the first time this season all three leagues have a Game of the Week. Kicking off our games this week is the Friday Night Showdown in the National Arena League between the Jacksonville Sharks and Columbus Lions. This game is being played at 6PM CT at "The Jungle" the Columbus Civic Center, it's the first ever meeting between these teams and first game in NAL history. The Sharks first non-AFL game against a two time defending champion team, in a new league with new rules. You can watch the Lions vs Sharks online on CTV Beam. The CIF Game of the Week will be on Saturday night at 7PM when Chris Dixon comes back for the first time in two seasons to lead the Texas Revolution against the CenTex Cavalry at the Bell County Expo Center in Belton, TX. The CIF game of course will be on Eversport. And finally we end with the IFL Game of the Week, a Monday Night Showdown between the Sioux Falls Storm and the Iowa Barnstormers. Sioux Falls has never lost inside the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center and Iowa has never beaten the Storm, however the Storm do NOT look like an unbeatable goliath and have barely edged out two of three wins. On the opposite side the Barnstormers look to have their best team since their 2010 af2 playoff appearance. Sioux Falls vs Iowa kicks off at 6PM CT and can be seen LIVE and FREE on YouTube. And as always if you want to try the challenge you can pick the games here.

Indoor Football Weekly #14

Week four of indoor football is up and finally we'll see action (of some sort at least) in all three leagues for the first time in 2017!

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.

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.

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.

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.

Indoor Football Weekly #9 Preseason 2017, Part 1: Indoor Football League

Credit: Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Ohhhhhhh yes it's that time again, the preseason is upon us! That's right it's football time once again and the 2017 season is looking like it could be the best in years! We have 3 good leagues this season in the IFL, CIF, and NAL. Without American Indoor Football it looks like 2017 will be clean but who knows in this sport.

Credit: http://www.markthompson.us/gameballs/IPFL/

To start off 2017 is a special year in the sport as it marks the 20th anniversary of the Indoor (not Arena) game being played. That first league was the original Professional Indoor Football League founded and playing only the 1998 Season. 1998 was not a year without it's difficulties as the Minnesota Monsters (coached by Ron Simmons) would fold after just 5 league games, the Texas Bullets would fold after 10 games, and the Utah Catzz forfeited their final game to the Madison Mad Dogs. In the championship game the Louisiana Bayou Beast defeated the Madison Mad Dogs 42-41 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, LA. After 1998 the PIFL folded and splintered into 2 leagues, the IPFL and original IFL but that is a story for another time. There are no clubs remaining from the original PIFL in the 1998 season and only 3 markets still have clubs. Green Bay (the Bombers) now have the Green Bay Blizzard who have played in the Resch Center (not the old Brown County Veterans Memorial Coliseum) since 2003. Belton, TX (Texas Bullets) will have the CenTex Cavalry playing out of their old stomping grounds, the Bell County Expo Center. And finally the Greater Salt Lake area (Utah Catzz in Orem, UT) will also have an expansion team the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles playing at the Maverik Center in West Valley City, UT. This history section will be a recurring feature this year in Indoor Football Weekly.

Now onto the real stuff! Let's start with the first league kicking off the Indoor Football League! The IFL players reported for training camp already and started on January 30th. Now let's start off with some previews.

Intense Conference

The Intense Conference has some familiar clubs returning such as the Nebraska Danger and Colorado Crush along with last years Intense Conference Champion Spokane Empire. They'll be joined by two new clubs the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles and perennial AFL stalwart the Arizona Rattlers. Salt Lake and "Project Fanchise" do NOT look impressive right now and there slotted at #5 in the Intense. On the other hand Colorado finished 2016 in 4th place at 4-12. While they don't look impressive they do look like they will give Nebraska, who is defiantly in a rebuilding phase, a run for their money for third place. And that is where the problem lies, last season with 6 clubs (3 in each conference) making the playoffs the end of the season was exciting! Colorado and the now folded Tri-Cities Fever weren't out until later and Nebraska and the now folded Billings Wolves fought to the end for the First Round home game! This will not be the case as the IFL has gone back to just 4 teams (2 from each conference) making the playoffs.  And THAT fact brings us to our last 2 clubs the Spokane Empire and Arizona Rattlers. Last years Intense Conference Champion Spokane led by longtime Indoor coach Adam Shackleford will be a force to be reckoned with. On the other side Kevin Guy and the Arizona Rattlers will also be a force even as a de facto expansion club. Picks for the IFL Intense Conference has Arizona facing Spokane in the Conference Championship, winner to close to pick at this moment.

United Conference

Unlike the changes in the Intense Conference the United Conference brings back all 5 clubs from 2016. While last season Green Bay and Iowa were in the cellar, Wichita Falls and Cedar Rapids fought until the end for the home playoff game.. That will not happen this season, Cedar Rapids was truly unimpressive this offseason and they look to be in 5th Place. Green Bay has been a young team in development for a while and they don't look to be playoff material don't count them out as they could surprise us. Wichita Falls continues to look well (which is the opposite of their attendance) and Iowa really is looking to have built a playoff capable team after finishing with a franchise worst finish in 2016. But that doesn't matter in the United Conference unless someone knocks out the King, the Sioux Falls Storm. Sioux Falls is looking to dominate again in 2017 and just added 3 years to Kurtiss Riggs so expect some more championships. Pick for IFL United Conference Sioux Falls beats who cares at this point.

Games to Watch

Well there are a few of these this year, and thank god the IFL will now be free on YouTube for the 2017 season. The first game to watch has a good shot at Game of the Year as the Kings of Indoor Football, the 10 time Indoor Champion Sioux Falls Storm, face off against the Kings of Arena Football, the 5 time ArenaBowl Champion and IFL newcomer, the Arizona Rattlers. The game is set for Week 1 on Friday February 17th inside the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls, SD.

The next is the series between Arizona and Spokane, both clubs left the AFL for the IFL in the last two seasons and will be fighting for the Intense Conference Championship. Arizona plays host to Spokane on Saturday April 22nd, while Spokane hosts the games on Friday May 12th and Saturday June 3rd. The final game to watch (at this point) is when a rematch of the 2016 United Bowl when Spokane visits the Sioux Falls Storm on Saturday May 6th in Sioux Falls, SD.

As we wrap things up the Indoor Football League has just two preseason games. One of those is this weekend with the traditional "Home Opener" for the Cedar Rapids Titans as they face the Iowa Barnstormers at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids. The other preseason game will be played on Saturday February 11th when the SIF's travel only Cap City Bulls head to the Kay Yeager Coliseum to take on the Wichita Falls Nighthawks. This is just part one of three as we'll cover both the CIF and NAL closer to their seasons start dates.