Post by alecs on Oct 14, 2022 21:19:18 GMT -8
Well, friends, the time has come again! We are now officially just over five months away from the start of the 2023 IFL Season, as the league made the schedule for the season available to the public.
The league's alignment remains basically unchanged, with the expansion Tulsa Oilers taking Bismarck's place in the Eastern Conference following the Bucks' dormancy announcement last week. So still 7 teams split between Eastern and Western Conferences. Per the league's announcement, the playoff schedule will be announced at a later date, and it mentions the Top 8 teams will make the postseason. Part of me thinks it will be the Top 4 from each conference like last year, but the verbiage could be interpreted a bit differently. We'll see if there are in fact any changes to the playoff format as we get closer to it.
Teams will play one fewer game in the 2023 Regular Season than they did for 2022. 15 games over the course of 18 weeks for each team, which means that each team will have one more game at home than on the road, or vice versa. A curious decision by the league to trim the regular season down, which leaves us fans pondering at what exactly prompted that choice.
* The teams with the extra home game: Arizona, Duke City, NAZ, Tucson, Vegas, Iowa, Tulsa
* The teams with the extra away game: Bay Area, San Diego, Frisco, Green Bay, Massachusetts, Quad City, Sioux Falls
As was the case last year, the number of intra-conference games is not equal for all teams within that given conference. The Frisco Fighters are the most extreme example of this, as just 8 of their 15 games come against Eastern Conference foes, and curiously they do not play Quad City at all. Which is both unjustifiably absurd and robs us fans of seeing what would be a highly-anticipated rematch of last year's Eastern Final. Aside from that outlier, most teams check in anywhere between 11-13 games within their respective conference. This will be something to monitor if the tiebreaking format relies on conference win percentage like last year.
Speaking of playoff rematches, there are 10 out of the 105 games scheduled. For First Round Matchups, Duke City and Arizona face off twice, Week 5 at Arizona and Week 14 at Duke City. Tucson and defending IFL Champion Northern Arizona will meet in Week 8 at Tucson and again in Week 15 at Prescott Valley. Frisco and Iowa will only encounter each other once, and that will be each team's season finale in Week 18. Quad City and Massachusetts will battle twice, Week 6 in East Moline and Week 10 in Worcester.
As mentioned before, we will not get the re-match of Quad City and Frisco, but the Wranglers and Rattlers more than make up for that, with three head-to-head meetings. Week 10 at Arizona, Week 12 at Prescott Valley, and again in the final week of the season in The Snake Pit. Unfortunately, we will not see a Wranglers/Steamwheelers Championship rematch during the regular season, so their only path to a collision course would have to be a grudge match in Vegas for the 2023 Title.
Here are some other oddities I observed while parsing through the schedule:
* Every team, except for Tulsa and Quad City, will have to endure a road trip of at least 3 games at some point during the season. Green Bay is the only team with a 4-game road trip, and that will be at the very end of their season.
* For fans of the Storm and Sugar Skulls, you'll have to wait until April for your season to begin, as both teams technically have byes in Weeks 1 and 2. And to make matters worse for the Sugar Skulls, their home opener will not take place until April 22, which is Week 6!
* The Tulsa Oilers receive something of a trial by fire to begin their inaugural season, as their first two games are on the road at Frisco and Duke City, both playoff teams from last season. And by the time they open their new home in Week 5, they will be hosting last year's runner-up, Quad City.
Excel version of the schedule is attached, in case you want to track the season that way.
IFL 2023 Schedule.xlsx (13.09 KB)
The league's alignment remains basically unchanged, with the expansion Tulsa Oilers taking Bismarck's place in the Eastern Conference following the Bucks' dormancy announcement last week. So still 7 teams split between Eastern and Western Conferences. Per the league's announcement, the playoff schedule will be announced at a later date, and it mentions the Top 8 teams will make the postseason. Part of me thinks it will be the Top 4 from each conference like last year, but the verbiage could be interpreted a bit differently. We'll see if there are in fact any changes to the playoff format as we get closer to it.
Teams will play one fewer game in the 2023 Regular Season than they did for 2022. 15 games over the course of 18 weeks for each team, which means that each team will have one more game at home than on the road, or vice versa. A curious decision by the league to trim the regular season down, which leaves us fans pondering at what exactly prompted that choice.
* The teams with the extra home game: Arizona, Duke City, NAZ, Tucson, Vegas, Iowa, Tulsa
* The teams with the extra away game: Bay Area, San Diego, Frisco, Green Bay, Massachusetts, Quad City, Sioux Falls
As was the case last year, the number of intra-conference games is not equal for all teams within that given conference. The Frisco Fighters are the most extreme example of this, as just 8 of their 15 games come against Eastern Conference foes, and curiously they do not play Quad City at all. Which is both unjustifiably absurd and robs us fans of seeing what would be a highly-anticipated rematch of last year's Eastern Final. Aside from that outlier, most teams check in anywhere between 11-13 games within their respective conference. This will be something to monitor if the tiebreaking format relies on conference win percentage like last year.
Speaking of playoff rematches, there are 10 out of the 105 games scheduled. For First Round Matchups, Duke City and Arizona face off twice, Week 5 at Arizona and Week 14 at Duke City. Tucson and defending IFL Champion Northern Arizona will meet in Week 8 at Tucson and again in Week 15 at Prescott Valley. Frisco and Iowa will only encounter each other once, and that will be each team's season finale in Week 18. Quad City and Massachusetts will battle twice, Week 6 in East Moline and Week 10 in Worcester.
As mentioned before, we will not get the re-match of Quad City and Frisco, but the Wranglers and Rattlers more than make up for that, with three head-to-head meetings. Week 10 at Arizona, Week 12 at Prescott Valley, and again in the final week of the season in The Snake Pit. Unfortunately, we will not see a Wranglers/Steamwheelers Championship rematch during the regular season, so their only path to a collision course would have to be a grudge match in Vegas for the 2023 Title.
Here are some other oddities I observed while parsing through the schedule:
* Every team, except for Tulsa and Quad City, will have to endure a road trip of at least 3 games at some point during the season. Green Bay is the only team with a 4-game road trip, and that will be at the very end of their season.
* For fans of the Storm and Sugar Skulls, you'll have to wait until April for your season to begin, as both teams technically have byes in Weeks 1 and 2. And to make matters worse for the Sugar Skulls, their home opener will not take place until April 22, which is Week 6!
* The Tulsa Oilers receive something of a trial by fire to begin their inaugural season, as their first two games are on the road at Frisco and Duke City, both playoff teams from last season. And by the time they open their new home in Week 5, they will be hosting last year's runner-up, Quad City.
Excel version of the schedule is attached, in case you want to track the season that way.
IFL 2023 Schedule.xlsx (13.09 KB)
