Nationals Pools

The USAFL National Tournament Committee is pleased to announce this year's National Tournament pools. As you can imagine, this is a difficult task given the geographical disparity of the teams. 2002 is the first year that we have a third division due to the growth of the tournament to 24 teams. This compounded the committee's difficult task.

The committee tried, whenever possible, to place clubs in the divisions requested. Any perceived anomalies in the divisions are due to this constraint. When placing teams in pools, we tried to balance rankings against the aim of creating match ups that do not occur during the year. In some cases we also looked at previous National's match ups.

The USAFL is excited by the anticipation of seeing many competitive match-ups during the tournament. The league firmly believes this will be the most evenly balanced tournament on record and every team comes to Kansas City knowing that they have a legitimate shot at winning their division.

The final draw will be announced later this week once a number of logistical issues are resolved. We are close to confirming a third field in order to get additional games completed on the Saturday. This will also radically change the previously publish draw.

Division I:

Pool A

Denver, Nashville, Boston, Atlanta

Pool B

San Diego, New York, Kansas City, Seattle

Division II:

Pool A

Dallas, Cincinnati, Orange County, Chicago Swans

Pool B

Phoenix, Santa Cruz, St Louis, Baltimore/Washington

Division III:

Pool A

LeHigh Valley, North Carolina, Chicago Sharks, Denver B

Pool B

Milwaukee, Philadelphia, Louisville, New York B

Notes:

Denver and San Diego were given Number 1 seeds due to their strong performances during the year.

San Diego, Boston, Nashville, and Atlanta were given automatic berths in Division I given that they won their respective leagues.

Seattle was given a Division I berth even though they have not played regular season USAFL games in 2002. Seattle requested Division I and was granted a Division I berth because a number of potential Division I clubs requested Division II.

Kansas City was not given an automatic berth as the host club, but their strong performances during the 2002 season warranted their entry into Division I.

New York, last years Division II winner was not given an automatic berth. They received a Division I slot based on their 2002 results.

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