D-League Odds Released From Shecky's East; Anaheim, Little Rock, BC Among Favorites

(last updated 11:23 AM Sunday, March 16, 2014)

The group winning odds were released Friday for the fifty-four teams in the UWFFL Developmental League, and among the favorites to win their groups were the Anaheim Bandits, the Little Rock Diamondbacks and the British Columbia Lumberjacks.  Anaheim had the lowest odds of any team, placed at 3:1 to win Group D.  Little Rock at 4:1 to win Group C and British Columbia at 4:1 to win Group F had the next best odds, while the Springfield Specters, at 100:1 to win Group D, had the longest odds of any team on the board.  Tuscon, also in Group D, and Virginia in Group B and Cincinnati in Group D, had the next longest odds at 50:1 to win their group.

The odds were released by Sheckey's Intergalactic Sportsbook East of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Sheckey's East Headlinesmaker Chrisley Sheridan (who friends call "Todd") stated that did not necessarily indicate that Anaheim was the best team and Springfield the worst.  "It takes into account not only the relative strength of each team, but also the strength of competition in each group.  Some groups are definitely more balanced than others."

Philadelphia and St. John's were co-favorites to win Group A at 6:1, with Ontario at 7:1 and Buffalo at 8:1. Rhode Island had the longest odds in Group A at 25:1.  Delaware and Greenville are co-favorites in Group B at 5:1, with Charleston at 6:1 and Charlotte at 8:1.  Savannah at 25:1 along with Virginia had the longest odds in Group B.

The Angle North Stars and the Milwaukee Mammoths were co-favorites in Group E at 5:1, despite the Mammoths having yet to release their uniforms yet.  "I think a lot of the strength of the Mammoths entry was the combination of both a strong logo, as well as the good results Mike (Johnson) had last fall with Sacramento and Vancouver," Sheridan stated.

Yellowknife, at 5:1, was second to the B.C. Lumberjacks in Group F, in what may be one of the weaker groups, with four teams at 30:1 or worse.  Northern Idaho, North Dakota, Spokane-Couer d'Alene were at 30:1, while Whitehorse has the longest odds in Group F at 40:1.  Pontiac at 30:1 and Winnipeg and Wisconsin at 25:1, all in Group E, found themselves in a group that had five teams at 7:1 or better odds.  After Angle and Milwaukee, Cheyenne was at 6:1, with both the Crown Royal Blacks and Fresno at 7:1.

Anaheim was the prohibitive favorite in their group, with the next best odds in Group D belonging to Dayton, Indiana and Toledo all at 10:1.

The UWFFL Developmental League begins play this weekend with twelve games featuring teams from Groups B, D and F.

The complete odds for all fifty-four teams to win their group can be viewed on Sheckey's website.

Savannah chosen first, Little Rock last in D-League 'Schedule Lottery'

The Fifty-Four teams that will begin play this weekend in the UWFFL Spring 2014 Developmental league participated in a "schedule lottery" to determine each team's schedule on Tuesday.  A pre-determined schedule was released in which the teams, arranged in six nine-team groups, will have the order of their opponents arranged.  Last week teams were placed into six mostly geographically arranged groups.

This reporter hurriedly scribbled down the results of the
lottery, unaware that everything would be presented
in a media handout minutes after the event was concluded.

Selected first was the Savannah Sledghammers, and fifty-fourth and last was the Little Rock Diamondbacks. By the order selected, each of the nine teams in each group was assigned a letter, from A to I.  The first team selected from each group was designated "Team A", and so forth until the ninth and final team to be selected from each group was designated "Team I".  After Savannah was selected, Cincinnati was chosen second and became 'Team A' in Group D, while Philadelphia, Mississippi and the Crown Royal Blacks from Winnipeg rounded out the top five.  Montana was selected sixth and became 'Team A' in Group F, and after six choices, each group had one team selected.  Delaware, chosen thirty-seventh, was the first team to close out its group and was designated 'Team I' in Group B.  Rhode Island was chosen 49th and became 'Team I' in Group A, and Boise, Dayton, Springfield and Whitehorse were chosen fiftieth through fifty-third before the Diamondbacks were the final team selected, and became 'Team I' in Group C.

These selections are largely academic and will have little to no impact on the results -- each team will play the other eight teams in the same group once, for an eight game schedule that will be played over a seventeen week period.  The first weekend of games will begin this Saturday, with twelve games featuring teams from Groups B, D and F.  The season will conclude with the seventeenth weekend of games on July 5.  Eighteen teams from the Developmental league, the teams that finish in the top three places in each group, will be placed in Division II this fall, while the teams that finish in fourth and fifth places in each group will be placed in Division III.  The remaining teams will be eligible to return next Spring for the 2015 Developmental League season.

The six group winners, along with the two best-finishing second place teams will compete in a three-round playoff for the UWFFL D-League Championship, with the first round on July 12, the semifinals on July 19 and the Championship on July 26.  Any ties for regular season group champion or wild card finishers will be broken by either head-to-head results or total votes, while any ties that have any bearing on placement of a team into a Fall league will be settled with tiebreaker games, also to be played on July 12, 19 or 26.

There won't be much time for turnaround, as the Division II sixteen game regular season begins on August 2. Division III will begin their inaugural season on August 16, while the UWFFL Bowl XIV Champion Minnesota Mustangs will begin their title defense a little later as the UWFFL Division I regular season will begin on September 6.

Among this weekend's marquee games are Charlotte at Greenville in Group B and Omaha at Dayton in Group D.

Tweet Confirms FSL returning for Fourth Season

FSL Tonight's Tom Merritt confirmed on Sunday that the FSL would be returning for a fourth season in 2014. Responding to a tweet from "Chris" (@darkpctv), Merritt replied that he and FSL Tonight co-host Justin Robert Young had just been remarking on that very topic earlier that day.

@darkpctv Funny you should ask! WE were just remarking on that ourselves today. Yes. @JustinRYoung
— Tom Merritt (@acedtect) March 9, 2014

In 2013, the San Francisco Federation won the FSL Championship with a thrilling 1-0 double overtime victory over the Gallifrey Time Lords in their first season at the top flight of the FSL. This year the FSL landscape will be a little different as the Federation begin defense of their title in a league which for the first time in a long time will have no Vulcan Velocity in it. The Velocity, long time rivals of the Federation, after reaching the Championship game in 2012, struggled in 2013 going 2-8 and were relegated to the minors.

The Federation will face an improved New York Avengers squad that they beat in the 2013 Semifinals in their division again, plus the league will feature three new teams in 2014, the Skaro Exterminators, the Ponyville Fillies and the Cylon Raiders.

World Bowl XVI - Utopia Power of Kiev vs Spartak Russia

Well we have finally made it to the final week of the inaugural UWWFL 2013-14 season.  

("This was longer than we thought it would be.  That's what she said".)  

Congratulations again to all of our champions, the <b>Minnesota Mustangs</b>, who won UWFFL Bowl XIV, the Anchorage Orcas, who won the minor league national championship game and will be promoted to the UWFFL next season, as well as the three conference champions, Hartford, Birmingham and Vancouver, who will also be promoted to the big league this fall.  Now it is Week 27 and this week we will crown one last champion as we present the championship of our international section, the La Lega Internaztionale di Uni Watchers Fantacalcio, World Bowl XVI in Sao Paolo, Brazil, along with a few exhibition games.

In the World Bowl, we have a matchup which some may find an analog to in current events.  Since, however, this is all just made up anyway, don't read to much into that when picking a winner.  Try to focus more on the team's uniforms than on which country is invading the other.  For the <b>Utopian Power</b> from Kiev, they have eschewed their normal red and blue colors and has are wearing a new World Bowl version of their away kit in the Ukrainian flag colors of blue and yellow, and which featurs the Ukrainian Tryzub (or, Trident), a symbol more than a millennium old and a part of the Ukrainian heraldic history since the very beginning of the 20th century.  The "home" team, <b>Spartak Russia</b> from Moscow, is <strike>dressed like an angry aggressor</strike> wearing their black third kit.

Our first post-season exhibition matchup is a memorial/benefit game in Copenhagen, Denmark, in honor of the unfortunate giraffe, Marius, who was <a href="http://world.time.com/2014/02/09/marius-giraffe-copenhagen-zoo/">euthanized and then fed to the lions in front of schoolchildren</a> last month at a Copenhagen Zoo because he "wasn't needed".  Our minor league team from Virginia, the Roanoke Giraffes are wearing a special uniform for this matchup against one of the international teams, the Stockholm Lutekvist, who are also debuting an updated look for this matchup.  Both teams are wearing special patches and helmet decals to honor Marius, and any imaginary money than may be raised by this game, were it to have been real, would have been donated to some sort of fund which seeks to stop zoos from mistreating animals.

Sadly, our two other exhibition matchups to wrap up the season have fallen through.  First there was <b>The Rob Ford Classic</b>, which was supposed to be held in Toronto, however everybody involved apparently was smoking crack or something because no teams showed up, and no one involved can even remember which teams were invited, or if any teams even were invited at all.

...and then finally, there was also supposed to be a game played in either Tijuana or Mexico City involving two teams that had found themselves at odds with league management, (and in one case, on the lam from the law), however that game was being organized without the league's blessing and outside of the league's jurisdiction, so we can't really tell you anything about it or if it is even taking place at all.  (Don't ask what FTV stands for.)

Well that's about all we have for you this season, we'll be back next week with Week 1 of the Spring 2014 Developmental League where fifty teams will begin to fight for placement in UWFFL's various leagues in the fall.    From the commissioner's podium, we bid you adieu.

UWFFL Division II National Championship - Anchorage vs Florida

Well after a one week delay due to weather-related issues, the excruciatingly long UWFFL schedule is finally coming to and end.  Our final (official) game of the year (not counting a few more weeks of international play which will culminate in the World Bowl) is this week's UWFFL BCS National Championship Game presented by Vicks NyQuil in Pasadena, California which will pit the #1 Florida Geckos from the Eastern Association, who finished the season 14-2 overall, against the #2 Anchorage Orcas, who went 17-2-1 out of the Pacific Coast Conference.

The winner of this game will receive the final promotion into the UWFFL's top tier this fall.

graphic

Both teams have stayed remarkable true to their uniform concepts during their seasons - and why wouldn't you when you've had the success they've had.  The Geckos had added a patch to their uniforms with their team initials, "FG" which was an alternate patch for their franchise in the 1960s and 1970s, but which only gets worn in postseason and Championship Games nowadays, and both teams are wearing the National Championship game patch.

Good luck to both teams and we'll see you in a few weeks for the World Bowl, plus who knows what UWFFL-related shenanigans may be in store for us during the off-season!

Mustangs Win UWFFL Bowl XIV

The Minnesota Mustangs defeated the Miami Cougars to win UWFFL Bowl XIV this weekend, 221-123.