WIFL announces playoff format expansion
Published on May 4, 2007 under World Indoor Football League 2 (WIFL 2) News Release
World Indoor Football League commissioner Gary Tufford announced today that a second playoff game has been added to the WIFL inaugural season.
Also, the WIFL debuted its logo and title for the championship game -- the World Indoor Bowl -- scheduled for the weekend of June 29-30 at the home of the regular season champion.
"Preparations are now being made for a first-class championship weekend," Tufford said. "The quality of play on the field so far has been outstanding and I expect it to continue into our championship game. Each team is well on their way in the race for the top."
The new playoff system calls for the third-place and second-place teams to face each other the weekend of June 22-23 with the winner taking on the regular season champion the following week. Presently, the post-season was simply the team with the best regular season record hosting the second-best team.
The change ensures that all the teams still have a viable shot at the post-season until the very end of the 14-game regular season.
"In a perfect world, we'd have four equally-matched teams all fighting for a playoff spot week in and week out," Tufford said. "But reality is that with only four teams it just isn't viable to have a fourth place team taking a shot at the number one seeded regular season champion.
"The purists contend that a four-team league need only to have the first and second place team face off for the championship," Tufford added. "However, we've prepared for the contingency that one or two of our teams are going to be behind the curve and I want to avoid them, or any team for that matter, having to play meaningless games late in the season.
âThis will keep everybody in the hunt," Tufford added. "This also gives another one of our markets a playoff experience for its community and fans that we can use to build upon for the future.
The Columbus Lions currently lead the league standings with a 6-2 mark, followed by the Augusta Spartans and Osceola Ghostriders at 4-4 and the Daytona Beach Thunder at 2-6.
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