Wednesday 11 January 2012

BUAFL Conference alignments 2012/2013 season

The League has announced (via Facebook)  the provisional Conference alignments for 2012/13 to teams. These did not include expansion teams who will be factored in at a later date:
Saltire Conference:
Edinburgh Predators
Edinburgh Napier Knights
Glasgow Tigers
Stirling Clansmen
UWS Pyros

North East Conference (name tbc)
Durham Saints
Newcastle Raiders
Northumbria Mustangs
Sunderland Spartans
Teesside Cougars
York Centurions
Leeds Celtics
Leeds Carnegie
UH Sharks
Bradford Bears

Big North Western:
Bangor Muddogs
Staffordshire Stallions
Derby Braves
MMU Eagles
Manchester Tyrants
Sheffield Sabres
Hallam Warriors
Lancaster Bombers
LJM Fury
Huddersfield Hawks

Midland Athletic:
NTU Renegades
Nottingham Outlaws
Lincoln Colonials
Loughborough Aces
Northampton Nemesis
Warwick Wolves
Birmingham Lions
Leicester Longhorns
DMU Falcons
Coventry Jets
Worcester Royals

South Western Atlantic:
Tarannau Aberystwyth (cross conference games with Big North Western Conference teams)
Swansea Titans
Cardiff Cobras
Bath Killer Bees
Bath Spa Bulldogs
UWE Bullets
Bristol Barracuda
Gloucester Gladiators
Plymouth Blitz
Exeter Demons

Thames Valley:
Southampton Stags
Team Solent Redhawks
Portsmouth Destroyers
BNU Buccaneers
OBU Panthers
Surrey Stingers
Brighton Tsunami
RHUL Bears
Reading Knights
Brunel Burners

SEC:
LSBU Spartans
Kings College Regents
Essex Blades
UEA Pirates
Hertfordshire Hurricanes
Westminster Dragons
Kent Falcons
Imperial Immortals
Canterbury Chargers
Anglia Ruskin Phantoms
Greenwich Mariners
Cambridge Pythons

Analysis to follow later!
 
 
 

11 comments:

  1. They better now keept he same playoff format. IT would eb a disgrace if the Saltire conference gets the same amount of playoff berths as the TVC.

    ReplyDelete
  2. can some new teams turn up in swac? they are all established for 3 seasons min now and it would be nice to play in a division full of shockingly bad new teams like SEC thames valley and northern.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Leeds (Celtics & Carnegie) and Bradford are in the North East, but Huddersfield are in the North West? That's taken away their three closest rivals! Also in the North West - Derby? Sheffield? I don't envy THEIR travel times to divisional rivals!

    (Apologies to other divisions who may have it worse - I'm more familiar with the teams and geography of the North)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Derby >>> Sheffield --- 56 mins
    Derby >>> Manchester --- 1.30mins

    Derby >>> Birmingham --- 57 mins
    Derby >>> Worcester --- 1.29mins

    Dont see too much difference with Derby being in the North West, got alot of ways to get into the city from the North West. (not a derby player btw)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is this really true??? Sounds great the Northern conference has too many teams and most never play each other anyway. but I do wonder about the format for the new 'Saltire' conference. Only 5 teams? So they just play each other home and away all season??? No inter-conference games with the northern teams? I guess It would work but the playoff/plate places would need to be altered. Would there still be 24 playoff spots?

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is not including any news teams for next year, think theirs another scottish team in next year,

    ReplyDelete
  7. We've mentioned in the analysis article about the possible make-up of the play-offs - still trying to get our heads around it ourselves!

    The ever-helpful BUAFL website doesn't list any potential new teams from Scotland (which is massively confusing regarding the alignments), but potential new teams from Cumbria, Liverpool, BCU, Chichester, Kingston and Oxford, so the plot thickens.

    I think we are all kidding ourselves if we think that this won't change between now and November, but it is probably a decent indication of how things will look.

    ReplyDelete
  8. RE: 2nd comment...

    I like the SWAC. Every game is competitive (unless you're a Gladiator). Granted it might not be show-off, headline-grabbing 100-0 scores, but the games are way more physical and better coached in general than the jokers in the other divisions!

    Great history as well: Aber (1992), Bath (1992), Bristol/UWE (1992), Cardiff (1987), Plymouth (2001)...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Bath arn't doing to well this season, Aber haven't won a game this season.... They lost 39-0 to Bangor which until this season never won a game. But to be fair many of the established teams are struggling this year with many rookie teams bringing there A-games. A good example is Portsmouth they were only a rookie team a few years ago and now there one of the most successful teams in the league.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bath have lost just one game to an undefeated team at the top of the table. What's your definition of 'not doing well' here?

      The SWAC this year has a heavy taste of the 2006-2008 seasons about it, Bath/Cardiff/UWE slugging it out for top two spots and an unlucky third place 'loser'

      Delete
    2. There is no new team in cumbria, this rumour has been going around for about three years now.

      Delete

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