At the midway point of the season, I thought I'd look to see who is likely to promote to Division IV.24 next season.
Div V.70 Probable winner: UW Huskies
The Huskies are undefeated, but stuck in a league with all bots, so they're untested. They lost big in the third round of the Region Cup (49-0) to 1st place D.III opponent All Native Redhawks.
They seem to be doing things correctly though. They're building the stadium and have quickly gotten rid of older and less talented players. They now have a young talented roster with a low payroll. I'm interested to see how they fare in D.IV against human opponents.
Div V.71 Probable winner: Morganistan Mambas
The Mambas are also undefeated and stuck in a league with all bots except for one new team that got taken over about a week ago. We'll have to see if the newcomer sticks around and if so, how the Mamba's do against another human. They have a decent size stadium at 3900 seats.
Morganistan made it to the third round of the Region Cup where he lost 14-0 to a D.IV team who is currently 6th out of 6 teams in their league. Unlike the Huskies, Morganistan will need to do quite a bit of work on his team if he hopes to compete in IV.24. He has a small roster, with just enough players to field a team, and several of those are currently having to play out of position.
In addition, he has 7 players at least 30 years old and 2 more that are 29 years old. His only quarterback is set to retire after this season. His only cornerback is also retiring, as is one of his linebackers. With 3 retirement this season and likely 3 or more over the next couple of seasons, the Mambas have some major holes to fill going into D.IV next season.
Div V.72 This league has 2 teams fighting for promotion, The Short Bus Raiders and Rangoon Flying Tigers
Probable winner: The Short Bus Raiders
The Short Bus Raiders made it to the 5th round of the Region Cup where they lost a tough match, 17-0 to the D.III Grizzly Bears. Their stadium is small at only 1910 seats, but there could be some construction going on.
They have an offensive lineman planning to retire after this season, 4 other players 30 years old or older, and 2 others who are 29 years old. If Short Bus promote this season, as seems likely, he'll have some imminent retirements hindering him as he tries to compete at the next level.
The Rangoon Flying Tigers made it to the second round of the Region Cup where they got blown out 45-0 by D.II opponent Lakota Sioux. Their stadium is coming along with 2850 seats so far. They have 5 players at least 30 years old and one more who's 29 years old, there are no current retirements looming, but with the ages of some of their players, retirements are on the horizon.
He lost a tough 6-0 game to Short Bus, and his only other loss was to a bot when he had a Friday injury and went into the game with a bot offense. He may not promote this season, but seems to be in a better position for the long term than Short Bus.
