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2008 RMFL AA PredictionsEvery year I get together with friends and pick the NCAA Men’s Tournament bracket. This year I picked Duke’s lose in the second round, part of Davidson’s run, and the best of the best, Kansas beating North Carolina and then winning the championship. Now, however, I have been asked to pick something harder. The RMFL AA team predictions.
The past few years I’ve done this, I’ve had a lot of hits and a few misses, and undoubtably will have a little of both this year. The real problem I have as I look at everything this year is that I have to consider the three new Utah teams, the Strippling Warriorz, the Uintah Basin Oilers, and the Logan Stampede. Why? Because I think that the eventual champion of the AA will come from one of those three teams? Why would I think that? I don’t really know. It’s just coming from a guy that had a gut feeling about Kansas being good and Duke sucking it up come tournament time.
And while I think that the eventual champion will come from there, the problem I have is which one of them do I believe can do it. I’ve never seen them play, they haven’t been in the league before, and, as history of the league has proved, any team can win it, and any team can go 0-8. So, once again I’m going with my gut on this one.
The other problem with picking the RMFL is that just because one team is better then another, doesn’t mean that they’ll win more games. Division parody is lacking most years, and some teams truly have a home field advantage when teams must travel great distances to play them. Also, players might be missing from one game and not the other. Some players get hurt. This all adds up to sometimes the better teams not winning as many games as another.
What I try to do here, as I do every year is rank teams on where I think they’ll finish record wise. As mentioned before, a lot of intangibles makes this guessing at the most. With that said, a team that’s ranked lower then another team need not worry. I’m not saying you’re of less quality. I’m not saying that at all. I’m just predicting where you’ll end up recorded wise. As always, every team that don’t like where they stand can go and make me look bad like George Mason did to me a couple of years ago.
13- Glacier Knights:
Yeah. Um . . . well. Maybe the easiest part of the predictions might be starting with Glacier. I seem to introduce them first every year I have them in the conference. Glacier’s 2007 stats weren’t that great. Six offensive points and 332 points allowed. I believe that’s hard to win any games that way. They did have Bitterroot and Missoula in their conference last year, and that probably didn’t help their cause much. A 91-3 lose to Bitterroot messed up all of the stats. But, here I go. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict that Glacier wins a game this year. And today isn’t even April 1st. By my imagination, they have an excellent shot getting that win against a far traveling team. So . . . 1-7, on the clock for the first round pick . . . again.
12- Snake River Sabercats:
In 2007 Snake River beat Morgan 14-0 in the first week of the season. They then scored 58 points, gave up 388 in their remaining seven games. That’s almost like losing every game 8-55. With Boise, Idaho, and Magic Valley on their schedule all twice, that should provide some punishing scores this year. Their two breather games may be Glacier, who scored an average of .75 points a game and give up 42. So . . . get out your golf cards to keep score with this one . . . 1-7.
10- Morgan Marauders:
Morgan played two close games against Magic Valley last year. One was a 14-6 loss, the other one a 13-8 loss. Not bad. Oh, but then they were cremated in the other six games. Yet, this season looks very promising. They get to host Great Falls. So . . . 1-7.
9- Great Falls Gladiators:
Great Falls has an interesting year last year. They swept Glacier and split with Helena. That must be good for something, shouldn’t it. Just let me look and see where I’ve got Glacier ranked . . . and . . . oh . . . that’s right. I forgot . . . 3-5.
8- Magic Valley Bulldawgs:
I never know what to think of Magic Valley . . . “cough, cough” Mini Cassia. They’re level of competition seemed to vary every year and they will be good one moment, average the next. But none the less I think they’ll be a fairly good team this year. The problem with them, and thus the low ranking, is that they play Idaho and Boise twice, and are at Logan. I imagine they’ll beat Morgan and Snake River, and then somewhere along the lines they’ll get one more, but . . .4-4.
7- Eastern Idaho Lionz:
Great! My favorite part of predicting the season. I can feel the hate mail from my former team already getting put in my mail box. But, I predicted the Lionz quick exit in the playoffs last year and will stick by my long and complicated ranking process. The same one I guess the NCAA tournament with. I feel the Lionz are better then Helena, and have a chance of winning the division. But I look at the wonderful, if never ununderstandable schedule they have been given this year and seen the following information that might keep Helena in front of them. The Lionz only get Glacier once. They also get Strippling twice and Uintah once. If your keeping track of my predictions on your home game yet, you have yet to see Uintah and Strippling yet. And that’s not a good thing for the Lionz. They will have to sweep Helena to have a shot and if they don’t . . . 4-4.
6- Helena Titans:
Helena used to be a formidable opponent before the great AAA, AA split a few years ago that still keeps me awake at night. Then, something happened. Last year they were 3-5. But wait . . . . Is that a little misleading. They were in the division of Bitterroot and Missoula. That’s the other side of the extreme of having a cupcake in the division. Those two teams destroyed the two best teams out of Utah in the AA last year in the playoffs and played each other for the championship. So, do I think Helena is a little better? Yes. Are they the best team in their division? Well, maybe not. But they’re schedule is easier . . . (5-3)
5- Uintah Basin Oilers:
Okay. Here’s were it gets hard for me. I have no stats on the Uintah Basin Oilers. My only real thought toward them before this moment was when I heard that Uintah had been excepted into the RMFL. It took me about three days to finally realize I had heard the name Uintah the right way. I thought the managing board had said, “You’re in, Utah.” Anyway, I’ve got to make my gambles on the season, like I did on Memphis losing in the third round of the tournament this year. Not something I can brag about right now. So, with that said, I look at the schedule and feel that Uintah will win some games. Maybe they’re the best team in the league. At least they’ve got a name you have to say a couple of times to get use to . . . 5-3.
4- Boise Speed:
In the past few years I’ve always picked on Boise. Their run to the second round of the playoffs in the RMFL a few years ago was mostly because they had a six games against the weakest teams in the league and were all within a very short distance of Boise. They had also changed the division structure to get that mix. Last year in the AAA they were 0-8 and gave the Muddogs their lone win. But, this years a little different. I think the AA is better for them. They have Snake River twice, Great Falls, Helena on their schedules. I feel they’ll do a lot better this year. So they don’t need to rig this schedule . . . 5-3.
3- Idaho Matadors:
Ah. The Matadors. For some reason I’ve never been able to explain, I like this team. Two years ago when they brought 13 guys up to play Madison and never quit through the whole game, I was impressed. Last year they impressed me more. They were 5-3 and were only beaten by the 8-0 Vipers twice, and the 6-2 Bear River Valley team once in the regular season and then again in the playoffs. That’s pretty good. If they have anything this year like they had last year . . . 5-3.
2- Strippling Warriorz:
The Strippling Warriorz had something none of the other new Utah teams had on their website. Pictures of them at practice. So, that proved to me that they actually have players. That definitely bumps them up on the scale. Anyway, as again mentioned above, maybe they’ll be the best team in the league, maybe not, but this is what I’m thinking . . . 6-2.
1. Logan Stampede:
Okay. For the #1 pick I had to give a lot of thought. I basically was thinking it would be between Uintah, Strippling, and Logan. Why Logan? Well, I looked at the schedules, I looked at the rosters, but then, in the end, I went with my gut feeling. Go Kansas . . . 7-1.
Jade
For more information, please send an email to Jason Stucki at madlion@lionzfootball.com.
