BAFA National Leagues
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| Sport | American football |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2010 |
| CEO | Martin Cockerill |
| No. of teams | 70 (Adult Contact league) |
| Country | England, Scotland, Wales |
| Official website | http://britishamericanfootball.org |
The BAFA National Leagues (BAFANL, formerly the BAFA Community Leagues) are the primary American football competition in England, Scotland and Wales. They were formed by the British American Football Association in 2010 to coordinate contact football and flag football across all age ranges. A total of 70 teams compete within the leagues.
Like most sports in Europe, but unlike most American sports leagues, the BAFA senior league uses the system of promotion and relegation, with the league divided into three divisions; "Premiership", "Division 1" and "Division 2".
The BAFA's Premier Division for the 2017 season comprises eleven teams, split into the North and South conferences. Within each conference, each team plays each other twice. There will be 2 rounds of playoff football. The top ranked team in the NFC will host the second ranked team in the SFC whilst the top ranked team in the SFC will host the second ranked team in the NFC. The winners will compete for BritBowl.
For the 2017 season, the second tier has expanded to 20 teams, now divided into 4 conferences: the Northern North, Northern South, Southern Central and the Southern East. Each team plays the others in their conference twice during the regular season as well as all teams playing two opponents on three occasions. There is no inter-conference play until the playoffs.
The top 2 teams from each conference, plus the best two 3rd-place teams, will advance to the playoffs. These eight teams will be seeded by record, irrespective of conference finish. In the first round, the #1 seed will host #8, #2 will host #7, and so on. The two teams reaching the final will both win promotion to the Premier.
The third tier consists of two conferences, the Northern and Southern Football Conferences, which are further geographically subdivided into three regions each: the NFC North, Central, and South, and the SFC West, South, and East. Each team plays the others in their region twice during the regular season. Within each conference, the playoffs are structured identically to the Division One system described above, with the NFC 2 Bowl and SFC 2 Bowl deciding separate champions.
New teams must undergo an indefinite associate period before they are granted full member status of the national leagues. A number of criteria must be met, involving successfully completing a number of games, recruiting an amount of new players, proof of required finances and the creation of a club committee.
Current associate teams:
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