The SFL Unofficial Championship Title: Tracking the League’s Other Champions

by Cameron Irvine

Part One: The Inaugural Era (Seasons 1 - 9)


Ray Bentley

Season 23 was finally winding down to its end. Both teams hit the field knowing this was it - when all was said and done, one squad would be hoisting the trophy while the other would go back to the drawing board to try and capture the title the next season. While the game itself started off slow, by the end of the first half it was clear that the momentum had sided with the away team. Even though the defending home team was able to put some points on the board, it would not be enough to overcome the deficit they had been put in by that point. Ultimately the game would end in a lopsided 51-6 blowout, and when the final whistle was blown, the Baltimore Vultures would strip the title from the Charleston Predators and be crowned champions for the first time in team history. Don’t worry - you read that right; the Vultures finally won it all in Season 23, but the championship I’m referring to is the league’s Unofficial Title: a title that has been up for grabs every week of the regular season.


In other sports, such as boxing, a championship title can be linear. This ultimately means that you can capture the title but lose it in your very next match if your opponent is good (or lucky) enough. Lineal titles are a way to involve more than just the creme de la creme in the championship conversation, allowing almost all comers a shot at the top. If you look at the history of the Simulation Football League, there have only been nine teams that have won it all in the SFL Championship Game, which is a fairly small sample size out of the many, many teams that have existed. However, if the title is tracked linearly, it becomes apparent that far more teams have held a claim to a weekly title and the glory that comes with it.


Starting with the first ever Simulation Football League championship game between the New York Knights and Oklahoma City Renegades, I have tracked the title’s movement from each holder until the present day. The rules for the title are simple and arbitrary: it is held until it is lost, and the holder of the title at the end of the final week of any given season is crowned the Unofficial Champion of that season. In a majority of cases, the title does travel to the postseason, but there have been two seasons in league history where this was not the case. Surprisingly, we are also on the second incarnation of the title itself - the original title was lost to the sands of time when the team holding it elected not to return to the league. Now that we’ve established what the title is, how it is transferred and how it is “claimed” for a season, let’s take a look back on the Unofficial Championship Title, its journeys and the teams who can claim a victory as an (unofficial) SFL champion.


SEASON ONE: THE TITLE IS CREATED

S1 UNOFFICIAL CHAMPION: New York Knights

S1 OFFICIAL CHAMPION: New York Knights

S1 TITLEHOLDERS: 1 (NYK)


There is not much to say about the first ever SFL season when it comes to the unofficial title, as it would not exist until the very end of the championship game when the New York Knights would defeat the Oklahoma City Renegades 45-41. The Knights were one of six teams in the league’s inaugural season and would later go on to capture three more official championships (one more as the Knights, two as the current Queen City Corsairs). Would they reclaim the glory of being a dual title holder?


SEASON TWO: THE TITLE’S JOURNEY BEGINS

S2 UNOFFICIAL CHAMPION: ORLANDO INTIMIDATORS

S2 OFFICIAL CHAMPION: ORLANDO INTIMIDATORS

S2 TITLEHOLDERS: 5 (OKC | SFB | ORL | DAL | GRR)


Season Two began with a bang as the inaugural winners of both titles were defeated straight out of the gate. Oklahoma City would get their championship game revenge and strip the title from the New York Knights in the first week with a final score of 17-10, but their time as title holders was cut short the very next week as the San Francisco Bulldogs took home the W and the title with a 3-10 score over the Renegades in Week Two. Week Three saw the title change hands once again as the Orlando Intimidators confidently took the title for themselves with a 14-40 walloping of the Bulldogs. Week Four only featured a single game, and as the Intimidators were not playing, they became the first team to hold onto the title for two consecutive weeks. Unfortunately for them, the Dallas Stars were up to the challenge, taking on the title with a 41-45 win in Dallas. Week Six was another short week, allowing the Stars to become the second consecutive winning team, but the glory was short lived. The Grand Rapids Rollers put up 45 points and claimed the title in Week Seven, but almost immediately gave the title up the next week to the Intimidators. From Week Eight onwards, the Intimidators did not lose a game, capturing the regular season Unofficial Championship when they won their final game in Week Ten. During the postseason, the Intimidators did not loosen their grip on the title whatsoever, taking home the second Simulation Football League championship against the Oklahoma City Renegades, 24-42. Defending the regular season unofficial title through the postseason is rare, as you will later see - so any team that was able to accomplish this feat has their title upgraded to “Grand Unofficial Champion,” of whom the Intimidators were the first. So far, the title(s) have had roughly the same path - but Season 3 was around the corner, and with it came new teams and possibilities.


SEASON THREE: SPLIT TITLES

S3 UNOFFICIAL CHAMPION: BALTIMORE CRABS

S3 OFFICIAL CHAMPION: NEW YORK KNIGHTS

S3 TITLEHOLDERS: 4 (ORL | BAL | SFB | NYK)


The Orlando Intimidators were not about to give up their six week streak holding the unofficial title, and they became the first team to defend it in Week One following their championship win. Week Two had the Intimidators on a bye, thereby extending their victory run to eight total weeks. Unfortunately for the Intimidators, Week Three saw the new kids on the block (the Baltimore Crabs) take the title for the very first time. Unlike Season Two, however, Baltimore would not be stopped - going on the league’s first even undefeated streak to reach the postseason. This gave the Crabs their first Unofficial Title at the end of Week 11 with a record of 8-0. However, the postseason was full of surprises - the top two teams in the league were both eliminated in the semifinals, giving the San Francisco Bulldogs the title to take into the championship game. It was not to be for the Bay City, however, as the New York Knights capped off a shaky season with a 20-22 win to become the first repeat champions in league history. 


SEASON FOUR: STREAK SEASON

S4 UNOFFICIAL CHAMPION: MINNEAPOLIS MAULERS

S4 OFFICIAL CHAMPION: MINNEAPOLIS MAULERS

S4 TITLEHOLDERS: 2 (BAL | MIN)


Season Four was a formative season for the league, as the newly minted Minneapolis Maulers adopted a playbook that eschewed the run game entirely, stymying defenses in every week of the regular season as well as the postseason. So effective was their gaming of the options that the league instituted a rule the very next season requiring teams to have a specific ratio of run:pass plays in their submitted playbooks. However, while the Maulers were the story of the season, there was an interesting title switch to start things off: in a rematch of the Season 3 championship game, the Baltimore Crabs were able to take the unofficial title back from the New York Knights. There would not be much celebration with a consolation prize as they would be up against the Maulers in Week Two, who would claim the title and defend it all the way up through the Season 4 championship game, becoming the first team to reach a length of 12 consecutive weeks defending the title. The Maulers would also become the second Grand Unofficial Champions with their defense of the title throughout the postseason.


SEASON FIVE: EXPANSION

S5 UNOFFICIAL CHAMPIONS: LOUISVILLE WOLFPACK

S5 OFFICIAL CHAMPIONS: D.C. DRAGONS

S5 TITLEHOLDERS: 4 (MIN | SFB | LOU | DC)


With the hammer having been brought down on an all-pass playbook, the Maulers only spent the first week in Season 4 holding onto the unofficial title before losing it; the only reason they held it that long was they had been given a first week bye as well, defaulting them to titleholder and giving them a then-league-best 13 week streak with the title. However, they were unable to keep the title in their very first game with the RP ratio, giving the San Francisco Bulldogs the title in Week Two. Season 5 saw the advent of several expansion teams, with the Louisville Wolfpack being the first to take the title for themselves from the Bulldogs in Week Three. Much like the previous season’s unofficial title holders, the Wolfpack would go on an eleven week tear, beating the Bulldogs in the final week of the regular season to secure the Unofficial Title as well as #1 seed for the playoffs. Their last week as titleholders would be the quarterfinals as they were on bye; the Wolfpack would cede a championship berth and the title to another fresh face in the league, the D.C. Dragons, who would take the opportunity of a lifetime to become the fourth ever SFL Champion in a 31-30 nailbiter against the Santa Fe Gorillas. 


SEASON SIX: FRESH FACES, OLD CHAMPIONS

S6 UNOFFICIAL CHAMPIONS: QUEEN CITY CORSAIRS

S6 OFFICIAL CHAMPIONS: QUEEN CITY CORSAIRS

S6 TITLEHOLDERS: 5 (BAL | SXF | DC | MIN | QCC)


So far, the only team to ever defend their unofficial title in a Week One game was all the way back in Season Three, and the streak would continue in Season Six as the Baltimore Crabs took the title a little more northeast from the D.C. Dragons. Baltimore would defend their title for just one more week before the upstart Sioux Falls Sparrows would claim it as their very own for the first time in Week Three, but the Dragons would not be complacent for long. Washington would recapture the title in Week Four, only to slip and lose it back to the Crabs in Week Seven. In Week Nine, the Minneapolis Maulers would become titleholders once again after having lost it the previous season, and entering the final week of the season, it looked as if they would become Unofficial Champions again. Woefully for Minneapolis, they were up against a white-hot team in the Queen City Corsairs who were able to put Minneapolis away with a bonkers score of 50-58. The Corsairs, having won their second unofficial title, defended it all the way up to and through the championship game, becoming the third ever Grand Ultimate Champions in league history.


SEASON SEVEN: DEATH OF A TITLE

S7 UNOFFICIAL CHAMPION: LOUISVILLE WOLFPACK

S7 OFFICIAL CHAMPION: MINNEAPOLIS MAULERS

S7 TITLEHOLDERS: 4 (QCC | BAL | MIN | LOU)


By this point in league history, there had been four individual champions in seven seasons. This was reflected in the unofficial title’s journey as well; while several teams had, up to this point, held onto it, there were four teams that it just kept coming back to: Queen City, Baltimore, Minneapolis and the winners of Season 7, the Louisville Wolfpack. While the Corsairs were able to defend the title in Week One, they would not see the title again until the end of Season 8 - but we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The Baltimore Crabs would take the title in Week Two but Minneapolis, ever hungry for more, claimed it as their own in the third week. They would hold onto the title until Week Six, when the Louisville Wolfpack took it and refused to look back, holding onto it for the remainder of the regular season. The Wolfpack soundly bested the Corsairs in the quarterfinals, and then blanked the Dallas Ruffnecks in the semis, earning their first ever trip to the SFL Championship game - but were defeated by the Minneapolis Maulers 38-24, thereby losing the opportunity to become another Grand Ultimate Champion.


SEASON EIGHT: UNOFFICIAL TITLE 2.0

S8 UNOFFICIAL CHAMPION: QUEEN CITY CORSAIRS

S8 OFFICIAL CHAMPION: QUEEN CITY CORSAIRS
S8 HOLDERS: 1 (QCC)


Leave it to the Minneapolis Maulers to find a way to toss a wet blanket onto proceedings. After winning it all for a second time, the Maulers elected to not return for Season 8 in the Simulation Football League, thereby retiring with the original Unofficial Title. However, it would be uncouth to track it thus far and then declare any possibility to win the title defunct, so the same methodology from Season One was applied; the winner of the Season 8 Championship Game, the Queen City Corsairs, created a second unofficial title with their win. That same title is the one being contested currently in Season 24!


SEASON NINE: THE FINAL SEASON OF THE PRE-PROGRESSION ERA

S9 UNOFFICIAL CHAMPION: ST. LOUIS GLADIATORS

S9 OFFICIAL CHAMPION: MEXICO CITY AZTECS

S9 HOLDERS: 5 (QCC | TAL | ATL | CHI | STL)


The Simulation Football League was expanding quickly in both popularity and league size. The Queen City Corsairs, formerly the New York Knights, had just won their fourth championship in eight seasons, and had just created a second unofficial title to be awarded linearly. Week One saw them defend it handily against the St. Louis Gladiators with a final score of 7-52, then losing it the very next week to the Tallahassee Pride (TAL! TAL! TAL!). The Pride would then hand the Atlanta Swarm the title in Week 5, where it would remain until Week 7 when the Chicago Wildcats would take it. The Wildcats were one of the most dangerous teams in the league that season, and would continue to hold onto the title until the final week of Season 9. Chicago, visiting an eliminated-from-postseason St. Louis Gladiators, dropped their final game to them with a 14-20 score. For the first time in league history, a team held the Unofficial Title without having a playoff berth at the end of the season, and the title was kept from the postseason and out of the hands of the eventual champions, the Mexico City Aztecs. However, that’s part of the fun of the Unofficial Title; sometimes all you need is a lucky shot to wear the crown.


—--


At the end of the Simulation Football League’s ninth season, there had been five individual official champions and six individual unofficial champions. The offseason brought several changes to the league, but the introduction of the Progression system was a sea change entirely as to how user players were created and improved. With the advent of Progression came a new era to the SFL, and a Storm was brewing on the horizon. In the next part of our series tracking the Unofficial Title, we’ll take a look at the Progression Era of the SFL and the two dynasties that dominated it from beginning to end. Officially, of course. Unofficially, however, things were just starting to ramp up.

PRE-PROGRESSION ERA STATS

TEAM NAME

WEEKS HELD

NOTES

New York Knights / Queen City Corsairs

9

Created first Unofficial Championship Title with S1 Championship Victory; created second Unofficial Championship Title with S8 Championship Victory
First won weekly title: S1-Championship

UC TITLES: 2
GUC TITLES: 1

SFL TITLES: 4

Oklahoma City Renegades

1

First team to claim title as theirs after creation
First won weekly title: S2-W1

San Francisco Bulldogs

3

First won weekly title: S2-W2

Orlando Intimidators

10

First won weekly title: S2-W3
UC TITLES: 0

GUC TITLES: 1

SFL TITLES: 1

Dallas Stars

2

First won weekly title: S2-W5

Grand Rapids Rollers

1

First won weekly title: S2-W7

Baltimore Crabs

16

First won weekly title: S3-W3

UC TITLES: 1

Minneapolis Maulers

18

First won weekly title: S4-W2

UC TITLES: 1

SFL TITLES: 2

Louisville Wolfpack

20

First won weekly title: S5-W3

UC TITLES: 2

D.C. Dragons

5

First won weekly title: S5-SF

SFL TITLES: 1

Sioux Falls Sparrows

1

First won weekly title: S6-W3

Tallahassee Pride

3

First won weekly title: S9-W2

Atlanta Swarm

2

First won weekly title: S9-W5

Chicago Wildcats

5

First won weekly title: S9-W7

St. Louis Gladiators

4

First won weekly title: S9-W12

UC TITLES: 1