The IFL Alignment Game!

[Minor League Man]

Make your guesses as to how this league will be aligned.

My entry:
INTENSE CONFERENCE
NORTHWEST DIVISION
Alaska
Billings
Everett
Fairbanks

SOUTHWEST DIVISION
Abilene
El Paso
Odessa
San Angelo

MIDWEST DIVISION
Colorado
Omaha
Sioux City
Wichita

UNITED CONFERENCE
NORTHEAST DIVISION
Lehigh Valley
Maryland
Rochester
Saginaw

SOUTHEAST DIVISION
CenTex
Corpus Christi
Frisco
Louisiana

CENTRAL DIVISION
Bloomington
Muskegon
RiverCity
Sioux Falls

[Geoff]

Where are you getting Abilene? Is there a news story I missed?

[Minor League Man]

Where are you getting Abilene? Is there a news story I missed?
phydeaux72 has informed us several times that the Katy Ruff Riders will relocate to Abilene, with an announcement coming shortly.

[Geoff]

Ah I just haven't read all of the threads. lol That works.

[perusix]

add Kent to the NorthWest division

[Geoff]

Kent is 2010

[afdave]

My take, it makes uneven divisions (5 in the NW, 3 in NE), but, for setting up divisional play and keeping things closer to home, makes more sense:

My thoughts:
My entry:
INTENSE CONFERENCE
NORTHWEST DIVISION
Alaska
Billings
Everett
Fairbanks
Colorado

SOUTHWEST DIVISION
Abilene
El Paso
Odessa
San Angelo

SOUTHERN DIVISION
CenTex
Corpus Christi
Frisco
Louisiana

(Note: I really didin't look hard at the geography with the two above divisions, they can be split up in whatever way makes the most sense north to south, or east to west).

UNITED CONFERENCE
MIDWEST DIVISION
Omaha
Sioux City
Wichita
Sioux Falls

CENTRAL DIVISION
Bloomington
Muskegon
Saginaw
RiverCity

NORTHEAST DIVISION
Lehigh Valley
Maryland
Rochester

Divisional play would be 3 games vs. each in your division, except for the N.E. division, where they would play 4 games vs. each team, and the NW division where they would play 2 games vs. each team. So, every division has 9 divisional games, except for the NE & NW, which have 8.

Outside of the division games would be played primarily with a "sister" division (play against each team at least once between divisions):
Northwest & Midwest
Southwest & Southern
Northeast & Central

The additional games to fill out the schedule would be possible additional games against your "sister division" teams (especially where it makes sense, like the Texas/LA divisions), or, games against non-sister division teams that make sense.
So, by division, they would need the following "extra games":
Northwest: 2 games
Southwest: 1 game
Southern: 1 game
Midwest: 0 games (9 divisional and 5 vs. Northwest= 14 games)
Central: 2 games
Northeast: 2 games

You could make a few exceptions to the rules as well, for geographic reasons (maybe have the alaskan teams play an extra game against eachother instead of games against Midwest teams, which would free up the midwest teams some "extra games" that they could play against RiverCity or Bloomington, which would make more sense.

[Pounder]

Colorado is much closer to Midwest and Texas destinations than the Northwest... and has more economic ties to both than to the Northwest. Just saying...

[afdave]

Well, obviously, the 5 team division could be anywhere, so, you could slide Colorado into the Midwest division if you wanted.

That would actually even out the conferences, so, that might be better.

So then, based on that, you could set up as follows (I looked at a map and made the texas divisions better):

INTENSE CONFERENCE
NORTHWEST DIVISION
Alaska
Fairbanks
10 in division (3 each against Billings & Everett, 4 against each other)
4 games vs Midwest Division teams
Billings
Everett
9 in division (3 each against the other teams in division)
5 games vs Midwest Division teams (vs. each one)

SOUTHWEST DIVISION
El Paso
Odessa
San Angelo
Corpus Christi
9 games in division
4 games vs. Southern Division
1 "extra" game TBD

SOUTHERN DIVISION
Abilene
CenTex
Frisco
Louisiana
9 games in division
4 games vs. Southwestern Division
1 "extra" game TBD

UNITED CONFERENCE
MIDWEST DIVISION
Omaha
Sioux City
Wichita
Sioux Falls
Colorado
8 games in division (home & away vs. each team)
3 or 4 games vs. Northwest division (3 teams play both Alaskan Teams, 2 teams play only one of them)
3 or 2 "extra games" (definately against RiverCity & Bloomington where possible)

CENTRAL DIVISION
Bloomington
Muskegon
Saginaw
RiverCity
9 games in division
3 games vs. Northeast Division
2 "extra" games TBD (Probably against Midwest division teams)

NORTHEAST DIVISION
Lehigh Valley
Maryland
Rochester
8 games in division (2 home & 2 away vs. each team)
4 games vs. Central Division
2 "extra" games TBD

[Hockey]

The reason Alaskan teams play against Texas teams is because its cheaper to fly into major Texas metro's and bus to the other towns.

This is not the same in the Northwest. Flying from Alaska to Texas is half the price of flying from Alaska to Billings.

This makes much more sense. It maintains most of the rivalries and known travel costs. The Alaskan teams need to focus on traveling in the confines of Texas. DFW or IAH to ANC should be the only air purchased during the regular season.

INTENSE CONFERENCE

SOUTH DIVISION
El Paso
Odessa
San Angelo
Corpus Christi
Louisiana

NORTH DIVISION
Abilene
Alaska
Fairbanks
CenTex
Frisco


UNITED CONFERENCE

WEST DIVISION
Omaha
Sioux City
Sioux Falls
Colorado
Billings
Witchita

EAST DIVISION
Bloomington
Muskegon
Saginaw
RiverCity
Lehigh Valley
Maryland
Rochester

[twgmdd]

Why would you put Corpus in with the West Texas teams. I think El Paso, Odessa, San Angelo and Abilene should be in the same division. There all West Texas cities and there's also big high school football rivalries you can build off of from, between Odessa, San Angelo and Abilene.

[Reichert]

I think the Taylor County Expo Center still needs to resolve the beer issue before the Ruff Riders make the move. With that said, the Ruff Riders WILL be somewhere else by next season so the alignment issue could still be scrambled a little more by then. I guess we'll just need to stay tuned.

[hawk174md]

What is the latest on Maryland in the IFL?