Champions Indoor Football


Champions Indoor Football is a professional indoor American football league created in 2014 out of the merger between the Champions Professional Indoor Football League and Lone Star Football League, plus one team from the Indoor Football League and two expansion teams. Players are paid $75 – $300 per game before taxes with no other benefits.

History

2014

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.

2015

The Gary Dawgs, originally announced as a charter member of the CIF, rebranded as the Illiana 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 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 faced the top defense. 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.

2016

The Mesquite Marshals, Salina Liberty, and Bloomington Edge announced their entrance into the league, bringing the total number of teams to 12. The league meetings were on August 19 in Dodge City, Kansas. Many league changes were announced, including Darlene Jones resigning as commissioner, citing personal health-related reasons. Ricky Bertz was then appointed interim commissioner, with the help of Indoor Football League Hall-of-Famer, Tommy Benizio. Stephanie Tucker also joined Bertz and Benizio. Also announced at that time was the Northern/Southern divisional alignment. Later, on January 11, 2016, Bertz stepped down to focus on his team's sales, and Randy Sanders was named the interim commissioner. The updated alignment had each division with six teams. The top three teams reaching the playoffs and the team with the best record in each division received a bye in the first round. The division leader would then play the winners of the 2 vs. 3 seeds playoff game.

2017

At the end of the 2016 season, the Mesquite Marshals changed their name to the Dallas Marshals. Later, the San Angelo Bandits folded but were immediately replaced by an expansion team called the CenTex Cavalry out of Belton, Texas. The CIF continued to expand for the 2017 season by adding the River City Raiders and West Michigan Ironmen from the recently defunct American Indoor Football and two expansion teams in Kansas City Phantoms and Bismarck Bucks. The CIF announced the league would realign from two to four divisions, with two teams each division making the playoffs. In November 2016, the Chicago Eagles announced that they had suspended operations for the 2017 season. Following the Eagles' departure, the River City Raiders left the league, citing the adverse effects on their schedule due to losing a regional opponent, although there had been claims that the Raiders were actually asked to leave due to non-payment of league fees. With the departure of the two teams, the league realigned back into two conferences of seven teams, with four teams per conference making the playoffs.
During the league winter meetings, Bertz returned to his former position of interim league commissioner. Sonny Clark of the Texas Revolution was named as director of operations.

2018

On August 16, 2017, the CIF announced the Quad City Steamwheelers as an expansion team for 2018. On August 30, the league announced the addition of the Sioux Falls Storm from the IFL. The Wichita Falls Nighthawks of the IFL also joined on September 12. On the same day the Nighthawks joined, the Bloomington Edge and West Michigan Ironmen left the CIF for the IFL. The CIF apparently then attempted to sue the IFL, Edge, and Ironmen for leaving the CIF after the two teams had already signed league affiliation agreements with the CIF for 2018. The IFL then threatened to sue the CIF, Storm, and Nighthawks in return despite neither former IFL team signing an affiliation agreement with the IFL for 2018. To avoid disputes, the CIF stated they would not schedule either team. The Storm immediately announced that they would return to the IFL and the Nighthawks had to suspend operations. While the CIF did drop the lawsuit against the IFL, it filed for an injunction against the Edge and Ironmen teams from participating in the IFL for breaking the terms of their signed affiliation agreements. A temporary injunction from participation against the two teams was granted on January 31, 2018.

2019

During the 2018 season, it was announced that after a change in ownership, the West Michigan Ironmen would return to the CIF after playing a season in the semi-professional Midwest Professional Indoor Football. The league also added an expansion team called the Oklahoma Flying Aces in Enid, Oklahoma. During the offseason, the CIF lost the Bismarck Bucks and Quad City Steamwheelers to the IFL. When the 2019 schedule was released, both the West Michigan Ironmen and the Kansas City Phantoms had been removed as members. On May 9, the Texas Revolution folded during the season. At the end of the season, the Duke City Gladiators won their second consecutive championship and then withdrew from the league, eventually joining the IFL.
Following the season, the league announced it had partnered with the National Arena League to create a new league for the 2020 season under a new identity with two conferences: the CIF and NAL. However, it was announced on October 10 that the deal had been postponed, with both leagues playing their own individual schedules in 2020.

Teams

Map of teams

Former teams


DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:01/01/2015 till:12/31/2020
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:10 left:5 bottom:50 top:5
Colors =
id:line value:black
id:Now value:rgb # current member
id:Past value:rgb # former member
id:Future value:rgb # future member
PlotData=
width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:Now from:01/01/2015 till:end text: Amarillo Venom
bar:2 color:Past from:01/01/2015 till:07/10/2017 text: Dodge City Law
bar:3 color:Now from:01/01/2015 till:end text: Omaha Beef
bar:4 color:Past from:01/01/2015 till:05/28/2015 text: Salina Bombers
bar:5 color:Past from:01/01/2015 till:09/06/2016 text: San Angelo Bandits
bar:6 color:Now from:01/01/2015 till:end text: Sioux City Bandits
bar:7 color:Past from:01/01/2015 till:05/09/2019 text: Texas Revolution
bar:8 color:Now from:01/01/2015 till:end text: Wichita Force
bar:9 color:Past from:03/03/2015 till:07/25/2019 text: Duke City Gladiators
bar:10 color:Past from:01/01/2016 till:09/12/2017 text: Bloomington Edge
bar:11 color:Past from:01/01/2016 till:11/18/2016 text: Chicago Eagles
bar:12 color:Past from:01/01/2016 till:04/27/2018 text: Mesquite Marshals/Dallas Marshals
bar:13 color:Now from:01/01/2016 till:end text: Salina Liberty
bar:14 color:Past from:01/01/2017 till:12/31/2018 text: Bismarck Bucks
bar:15 color:Past from:01/01/2017 till:08/16/2017 text: CenTex Cavalry
bar:16 color:Past from:01/01/2017 till:12/31/2018 text: Kansas City Phantoms
bar:17 color:Past from:01/01/2017 till:09/12/2017 text: West Michigan Ironmen
bar:18 color:Past from:01/01/2018 till:12/31/2018 shift:0 text:Quad City Steamwheelers
bar:19 color:Now from:01/01/2019 till:end shift:0 text:Oklahoma Flying Aces
bar:20 color:Now from:01/01/2020 till:end shift:0 text:West Texas Warbirds
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:1 start:2016

Champions Bowl

When the CPIFL started in 2013, the championship game was known as the "Champions Bowl", so the CIF used the same name for their title game.