Current season, competition or edition: 2016 Champions Indoor Football season |
|
Sport | Indoor football |
---|---|
Founded | 2014 |
Founder | Ricky Bertz Stephanie Tucker Darlene Jones |
Inaugural season | 2015 |
CEO | Ricky Bertz |
Director | Sonny Clark |
President | Tommy Benizio |
Commissioner | Ricky Bertz (interim) |
No. of teams | 14 |
Country | United States |
Most recent champion(s) |
Wichita Force |
Most titles |
Sioux City Bandits & Wichita Force (1 title) |
TV partner(s) | Eversport |
Domestic cup(s) | Champions Cup |
Related competitions |
Indoor Football League National Arena League |
Official website | http://gocif.net |
Champions Indoor Football (CIF) is a professional indoor American football league created in 2014 out of the merger between the Champions Professional Indoor Football League (CPIFL) and Lone Star Football League (LSFL), plus one team from the Indoor Football League and two expansion teams.
The merger which formed the CIF was announced on August 22, 2014, after it had been rumored that the CPIFL and LSFL had been in discussions of a possible merger since July 31, 2014.
The Gary Dawgs, originally announced as a charter member of the CIF, rebranded as the Illiana Eagles (now the Chicago Eagles) after a change in ownership and delayed their entry into the league until 2016. On February 21, 2015, the new owners of the New Mexico Stars announced that the team would not enter the league as planned after head coach Dominic Bramante resigned two weeks before the scheduled start of training camp. On March 3, the Albuquerque-based Duke City Gladiators announced they were joining the CIF for the 2015 season and would play an abbreviated 11-game schedule as a partial replacement for the New Mexico Stars. At the end of the regular season, the four teams (ordered by seeding) that made the postseason were the Sioux City Bandits, Texas Revolution, Wichita Force, and Amarillo Venom. On Thursday, June 11, Texas defeated Wichita 39-27. Two days later, Sioux City beat Amarillo 83-52. This pitted Texas against Sioux City in Champions Bowl I on June 20 in Iowa. It was a highly-anticipated event in both Siouxland and the Dallas-Fort Worth area, as the number one offense (Sioux City) faced the top defense (Texas). It was a well-fought game, especially at halftime, as the score was tied 35-35. But a rushing touchdown for eventual Champions Bowl MVP Andrew Prohaska and a Rahn Franklin interception sealed the deal for the Bandits as they defeated the "Revs", 76-61 in front of a raucous crowd of 3,757.