We have reached the halfway point of the season so lets take a look at the playoff picture.

AXC

West

Oakland Outlaws 5-3
Denver Extreme 4-4
KC Chaos 4-4
Vancouver Vandals 3-5

East

Miami Nemesis 7-1
Buffalo Skull Crushers 4-4
New York Empire 3-5
New England Crusaders 3-5

North

Cincinnati Defenders 7-1
Houston Roughnecks 6-2
Pittsburgh Blitzkreieg 5-3

South

Dakota Blizzard 7-1
Texas Hold'em 7-1
Michigan Wolverines 4-4

The West division is a 4 team race with Oakland the defending champ.

The East is led by Miami who is looking to knock off 10 time defending division champ Buffalo. This would Miami's 2nd division title.

The North is led by Cincinnati who has come out of nowhere to overtake defending champ Houston and Pittsburgh who had their 9 consecutive divisional championship run snapped last season.

The South is a 2 team race between Dakota and Texas. Texas has won the crown 2 of the last 3 seasons while Dakota has 12 division crowns.

The Wildcard teams would be Houston and either Texas or Dakota which puts the record at 6-2. That leaves 8 teams within 3 games of making the playoffs.

NXC

East
Brooklyn Hitmen 7-1
Providence Islanders 6-2
Philadelphia Slayers 4-4


West
Los Angeles 4-4
Vegas Black Aces 4-4

North
Zehlendorf Zecken 7-1
Gem City Gangsters 5-3
St. Paul Punishers 5-3
Montana Grizzlies 3-5

South
Carolina Cobras 5-3
Tampa Bay Fireballs 3-5

The East is led by Brooklyn who won the division last season in a 3 team 8-8 record tiebreaker with Providence and Philadelphia.

The West has LA and Vegas tied at 4-4 where LA is the defending champ when they won their 1st division title. Vegas is trying to avoid a 3rd straight season missing the playoffs after a 5 year run as division Champs.

The North is led by Zehlendorf but as always is a 3 team race with Gem City and St. Paul on their heels. St. Paul won the division crown last season but all 3 teams have taken turns winning it over the last 4 seasons.

The South is led by Carolina who is on a 5 year run wearing the division crown. Tampa Bay has finished 8-8 the last 3 seasons and they are looking to win their 1st division crown.

The Wild card teams are currently Gem City and Providence with 5-3 as the record to match. Currently 5 teams are within 2 games of making the playoffs.

Key Games down the stretch

Week 14

Houston (10-3)
@
Cincinnati (10-3)

Carolina (7-6)
@
Los Angeles Challengers (8-5)

Pittsburgh Blitzkreieg (8-5)
@
Vegas Black Aces (8-5)

Providence Islanders (7-6)
@
Miami Nemesis (10-3)

KC Chaos (8-5)
@
Oakland Outlaws (8-4-1)

Dakota is 1st team to clinch playoffs in the AXC.....That continues a run of 16 straight playoff appearances for the francise since Season 1.

I'm pretty proud of that!

Week 14 Playoff seeding

AXC

1. Dakota Blizzard (11-3)
2. Miami Nemesis (11-3)

3. Cincinnati Defenders (11-3)
4. Oakland Outlaws (9-4-1)
5. Houston Roughnecks (10-4)
6. Buffalo Skull Crushers (10-4)

7. Texas Hold'em (10-4)
8. Denver Extreme (8-6)
9. KC Chaos (8-6)

Things are tight up and down the seeding as 3 teams are 11-3 and tied for the top 2 seeds while another 3 teams are 10-4 and tied for the 2 wildcard spots. The West has 3 teams within 1 1/2 of each other vying for the 4 seed while the other 3 divisions have 2 teams each vying for both the division crown and the byes. It's the closest divisional races I've ever seen throughout the entire Conference in the leagues 16 year history.

NXC

1. Zehlendorf Zecken (13-1)
2. Brooklyn Hitmen (12-2)

3. Vegas Black Aces (9-5)
4. Carolina Cobras (7-7)
5. St. Paul Punishers (11-5)
6. Philadelphia Slayers (9-5)

7. Los Angeles Challengers (9-5)
8. Tampa Bay Fireballs (5-9)

This Conference is down to basically 7 teams competing for 6 spots. The East and North have crowned winners and the South is all but won by Carolina. That leaves the West up for grabs between LA and Vegas with the loser battling Philly for the last wildcard spot. Tampa Bay is holding on and needs to win I week 15 versus winless Memphis and have Carolina fall to Philly in order to set up a week 16 head to head matchup with Carolina for the division title.

It was definitely an exciting ending of the season.

The AXC was stacked as 2 teams (Houston 11-5/KC 10-6) had double digit win seasons but missed the playoffs. The Conference is wide open as any of the 6 playoff teams has a legitimate chance to reach the Title game.

The NXC has the Zehlendorf Zecken and everybody else. They are odds on favorites versus the field but Brooklyn and division rival St. Paul may have something to say about it. Don't count out Carolina (9-7) who has been here before and won it all.

Wildcard Round

This round of the playoffs saw 3 of the 4 road teams win and all 4 games were decided by 9 or more points.

Divisional Round

Texas Hold'em
@
Dakota Blizzard (-6)

Dakota may be favorite at home but these 2 teams know each other well and are 5-5 versus each other the past 5 seasons. They met in the playoffs in 2031 where Dakota won at home 37-20.

Oakland Outlaws (-7)
@
Cincinnati Defenders

The experts have Oakland favorite on the road based on 15 straight seasons in the playoffs while Cincinnati under new ownership is making the playoffs for the first time in 9 seasons.

Philadelphia Slayers
@
Zehlendorf Zecken (-12)

Zehlendorf is a heavy favorite based on making 3 straight title games and winning 1 title. Philadelphia won the title in 2028 but they are under new ownership and have returned to the playoffs after a 2 year absence.

St. Paul Punishers
@
Brooklyn Hitmen (E)

The experts see this as the closest matchup of the round. St. Paul is making there 4th straight appearance in the playoffs while Brooklyn is in the playoffs for the 10th time in the last 11 seasons.

Divisional Round

The Divisional Round featured 4 fairly close games with the home teams taking 3 of the 4 games.

Texas @ Dakota was one of the games of the week in a 41-38 shootout where Texas was down 31-20 in the 3rd quarter before scoring a pair of TDs to grab the 34-31 lead. Dakota answered with the go ahead TD with 2:43 remaining but Texas answered with a 6 play 75 yard TD drive that took 1:31 off the clock. Dakota had 1:01 left but an interception sealed the game.

Oakland @ Cincinnati was the other game of the week where Oakland dominated into the 3rd quarter by leading 16-7 but Cincinnati's defense held Oakland to FGs instead of TDs. Cincinnati scored the final 10 points of the game and took the lead (17-16) with 1:01 left in the game with a 12 play 77 yard touchdown drive. Cincinnati's defense tightened up in the 4th quarter allowing just 29 yards while Cincinnati had 148 yards of offense in the 4th quarter.

Conference Championships

AXC

Texas Hold'em (-7)
@
Cincinnati Defenders

NXC

Brooklyn Hitmen
@
Zehlendorf Zecken (-11)

Only Zehlendorf has been to the title game among the final 4 teams and they are looking to make it 4 straight. While Zehlendorf has been dominate, a recent shakeup in the front office has some wondering if they can continue their run.

The AXC will have a new team representing them in the title game and odds makers believe a new Champion will be crowned!

gg Texas Hold Em'. Cincinnati just wasn't good enough to pull an upset.

Good luck to both teams in the championship game - looks like it should be a good one.

I get the sense this playoff is underwhelming due to the holly exit. I wanted to get here fair and honestly. I do believe my win over SPP earned me the opportunity to go to conference game and they are clearly a great team. Winning over a holly gameplan would have been a Superbowl in itself. With that said - GL Texas, proud to close the season out with you as my opponent.

Nonsense.....there have literally been hundreds of owners in and out of the XFL and to reach the title game is no easy feat. I'm glad we will crowning a new Champ....nobody wins a title by mistake!