- British Universities American Football League
The British Universities American Football League is the successor to the
British Collegiate American Football League , which folded in2007 .BUAFL largely follows the rules of the North American College league
NCAA Football . The league is split into 2 conferences, the Northern Conference and the Southern Conference, each consisting of 4 Divisions. Following 8 regular season games (normally against divisional rivals), the best 8 teams from each conference (4 Divisional Champions plus 4 Best Runners Up) compete in a 4 tier play-off system (similar to theNFL ) for the conference championship and ultimately a chance at the National Championship Game (formerly known as the College Bowl). This final competitive game of the year sees the best northern and southern team compete for the title.2008-09 Season
Restructure
From 2008-09 the league will have a new structure. Instead of the North-South Conference as before the league will have 4 conferences each with 2 divisions. The conferences are roughly North East & Scotland, North & East Midlands, West Midlands & South West, and South East. The divisions are nearly identical to last season.
Each team will play 8 regular season games from within their conference. This will be each team from their division either home or away with the other fixtures made up from within the conference. Most teams are scheduled to play 8 different teams during the regular season. The top 2 teams from each division will enter the playoffs. Full playoff details have not been released yet.
There will be a new competition called the challenge trophy. This will be open to the best team in each conference excluding playoff teams.
Divisions
Playoff Standings
North as at February 18th 2008South as at February 18th 2008
outh
Associate Members
In the '07/08 season, the BUAFL accepted four new teams for Associate Member status:
*
*Liverpool Fury
*Northumbria Mustangs
*Worcester Cardinals
The Buccaneers, Fury & Mustangs all completed their associate season & are scheduled to compete fully in the '08/'09 season. While the Cardinals are expected to remain as Associate members. BUAFL are expected to announce a number of new Associate Teams for the '08/'09 season, but we are still awaiting confirmation.
Foundation Members
The league recently launched a pre-associate member status for teams that are more than 1 year away from competing as full members. The Bangor Muddogs are expected to be announced as the first Foundation members. Swansea, Manchester, York & Exeter Universities are also understood to be in the process of setting up a team and applying for this status.
The newly formed York centurions are hoping to join in the 09-10 season.
External links
* [http://www.buafl.net/index.shtml Official BUAFL Website]
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