BAFA National Leagues

BAFA National Leagues

Sport	American football
Founded	2010
No. of teams	70 (Adult Contact league)
Country	England, Scotland, Wales
Official website	http://britishamericanfootball.org

The BAFA National Leagues (BAFANL, formerly the BAFA Community Leagues) are the primary American football competition in England, Scotland and Wales. They were formed by the British American Football Association in 2010 to coordinate contact football and flag football across all age ranges. A total of 70 teams compete within the leagues.

Teams

Like most sports in Europe, but unlike most American sports leagues, the BAFA senior league uses the system of promotion and relegation, with the league divided into three divisions; "Premiership", "Division 1" and "Division 2".^[1]

Premier

The BAFA's Premier Division for the 2016 season comprises twelve teams, split into the North and South conferences. Within each conference, each team plays each other twice. There will be 2 rounds of playoff football. The top ranked team in the NFC will host the second ranked team in the SFC whilst the top ranked team in the SFC will host the second ranked team in the NFC. The winners will compete for BritBowl.

Premier North	Premier South
Coventry Jets East Kilbride Pirates Lancashire Wolverines Merseyside Nighthawks Sheffield Predators Tamworth Phoenix	Bristol Aztecs Farnham Knights London Blitz London Olympians London Warriors South Wales Warriors

Division One

For the 2016 season, the second tier has expanded to 18 teams, now divided into 3 conferences: the Northern, Midlands, and Southern Football Conferences. Each team plays the others in their conference twice during the regular season. There is no inter-conference play until the playoffs.

The top 2 teams from each conference, plus the best two 3rd-place teams, will advance to the playoffs. These eight teams will be seeded by record, irrespective of conference finish. In the first round, the #1 seed will host #8, #2 will host #7, and so on. The two teams reaching the final will both win promotion to the Premier.^[2]

NFC 1	MFC 1	SFC 1
Clyde Valley Blackhawks Edinburgh Wolves Gateshead Senators Manchester Titans West Coast Trojans Yorkshire Rams	Birmingham Bulls Doncaster Mustangs Nottingham Caesars Ouse Valley Eagles Peterborough Saxons Sandwell Steelers	Bury Saints Colchester Gladiators Hertfordshire Cheetahs Kent Exiles Solent Thrashers Sussex Thunder

Division Two

The third tier consists of two conferences, the Northern and Southern Football Conferences, which are further geographically subdivided into three regions each: the NFC North, Central, and South, and the SFC West, South, and East.^[3] Each team plays the others in their region twice during the regular season. Within each conference, the playoffs are structured identically to the Division One system described above, with the NFC 2 Bowl and SFC 2 Bowl deciding separate champions.

NFC 2 North	NFC 2 Central	NFC 2 West	SFC 2 West	SFC 2 South	SFC 2 East
Aberdeen Roughnecks Carlisle Sentinels Dundee Hurricanes Glasgow Tigers Newcastle Vikings Northumberland Lightning	Chester Romans Halton Spartans Humber Warhawks Leeds Bobcats Walney Terriers	Crewe Railroaders Leicester Falcons Lincolnshire Bombers Shropshire Revolution Staffordshire Surge	Bristol Apache Cornish Sharks Jurassic Coast Raptors Oxford Saints Swindon Storm Torbay Trojans	Berkshire Renegades Bournemouth Bobcats East Kent Mavericks Hastings Conquerors Maidstone Pumas Portsmouth Dreadnoughts	Cambridgeshire Cats Essex Spartans Ipswich Cardinals London Blitz B London Hornets Wembley Stallions

Britbowl champions

• 2015 London Warriors
• 2014 London Warriors
• 2013 London Warriors
• 2012 London Blitz
• 2011 London Blitz
• 2010 London Blitz

References

1. "BAFANL Adult Contact Standings". BAFA National Leagues. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
2. "BAFANL League Expansion – Update". Double Coverage. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
3. "BAFA confirms National League 2016 structure". British American Football. Retrieved 10 January 2016.

External links

• Official league website