4th and Against - Should The BUAFL Season Begin Later On In The Year

Here at the Double Coverage towers, we like to argue... a lot.

One argument that keeps popping up, is the debate as to whether the uni league should begin later in the year to accommodate for the bad weather. 

In the end, we decided to take the argument to a 4th and against debate. In case you haven't seen a 4th and against debate yet, two writers will argue the topic at hand, one for, one against. Each writer will provide reasoning for their argument, and we allow the readers to comment and decide among themselves as to who is correct.

Arguing For - Jon Goddard, Co-Founder of Double Coverage and Head Coach of the Brunel Burners.

Another BUAFL season and once again the opening games have been blighted by the weather, with ground staff up and down the country refusing to allow teams to play games on damp fields for fear of irreparable damage to their beloved turfy havens.

What is the best solution to this uncontrollable problem? Shift the BUAFL season round so a majority of games are after Christmas, so that there is less likelihood of games being cancelled!

The biggest benefit to all of Britball is the amount of extra coaching that could go into University teams with this schedule switch. In 2007 the league had 2460 participants in 48 teams and this number has almost doubled to 4’026 participants in 68 Universities, showing the huge progress the league is making and the sheer number of players being brought into the game by it.

The extra weeks of practice could be used to play scrimmage games and give a more thorough introduction to the game for rookie players. Teams could run more ambitious schemes and technique and fitness could be drilled in. In theory this would then lead to more players able to step up to the senior level and not be swamped by terminology or size differences.

It would also take pressure off those Universities that have late starts to their academic years, with some University teams only getting 4 weeks to get their rookies up to scratch before facing off in a full game with pads. Even though this can amount to 12 training sessions, it’s still a huge task to undertake and one that must lead to avoidable injuries occurring on the practice field and on game day.

Students education and the clash with the exam period can be legislated for by more attention being paid by coaches to students progress in their courses. At Brunel for instance players have one excuse for missing practice because of work, but after that the excuse isn't acceptable because if they have to do it more than once, they aren't doing their work properly!

The issue of overlapping season is a big one, but one we already face that with the swath of postponed games due to the weather forcing the BAFANL senior season to start later and later. Already the Britbowl has been pushed back to the end of September instead of the August bank holiday, so shifting the seasons round seems the next logical step to ensure quality American Football can be played all year round and the standard raised year on year.

Arguing Against - Luke Plastow - Head Coach of BNU Buccaneers and Fan of Cowboy Hats.

Why we should keep it the way it is.

The focus of the sport at this level in recent years has been increasing participation.  If we move the season that participation could be effected massively.  The main intake of students occurs during freshers week and the subsequent recruiting fairs and campaigns.  Each team competes for the student athletes looking at taking up a sport. American Football tends to rival 3 main sports when recruiting.  Soccer, Rugby and Lacrosse.  Their seasons match the BUAFL season for now.  IF the season was moved back to January the potential rookies will be faced with a dilemma.  Play sport in October all season or wait and train for 3 months before the first match.  As a coach I would love a 3 month lead in to get the players trained and at their peak.  But I doubt the students would see it the same way.

Term time is another problem facing the season.  Each university has different term timetables with exams at different stages of the year.  These discrepancies tend to happen in the 2^nd and 3^rd semesters when coursework deadlines and exams are thick and fast.  As the players are students first no decent coach would advise a player to come to training and games when they should be doing work but pushing the season to the 3^rd semester will pose a lot of problems with regards to attendance.  There are a lot fewer occurrences of this issue in the 1^st semester.  Some teams suffer from January exams already.  Imagine having that the whole season.

They might not like to admit it but Uni ball keeps the senior leagues alive with a constant stream of young players every year.  The reason this works is because the seasons do not overlap.  The BAFANL preseason often misses it Uni players but they are not sitting at home they are still training every week.  By keeping the season in the winter you enable players to have all year round coaching and playing experience.  By overlapping the season you are not only taking away a players ability to play a lot of football but you are also reducing the rosters of the BAFANL teams.  Looking at the teams who have struggled to fulfil their fixtures, reducing rosters could see some teams fold completely.

It’s not all about players though.  A huge amount of coaches are signed up to summer and winter teams.  By moving the Uni season back you are forcing coaches to make a difficult choice as to whether to stick to the Uni season or move over to the summer season.  Some coaches won’t want to leave halfway through the year and will just coach one or the other.  In conferences like the TVC where they are over 10 teams within a 40 minute drive, coaches are hard to come by as it is. Losing more coaches who would rather participate in BAFANL would not improve the level of football at all.