CACHE VALLEY BEARS TO MAKE A SPLASH AT TOP OF LEAGUE RANKINGS; RHINOS CLOSE BEHIND; #3 PREDATORS TO BE MOST IMPROVED… LIONZ, MUSTANGS #4 & #5

 

RMFL Team Reviews/Projections: by Jared Neumeier

 

PLAYERS!! READ THIS FIRST!!

 

This preview is NOT the official word from your coaches on who will start and who will not!  Every position is competed and will continue to be competed at each practice and each game.  If you are hearing differently from your coaches lately, take THEIR word for it, not mine!  .

 

RMFL – The first season of a AAA division of the RMFL will start what is hoped to be a new era of league-wide parity.  The hope was that there would no longer be any 60-0 miss-matches and that each week, every team would have a contested game that would required they play at a top level.

 

I’m not sure we will have that completely in ’05, but there is no question, it the competition levels will be much higher.

 

Although I believe that the 2-time defending RMFL champion Rhino-Raiders might possibly be as good as they have been in the last couple of years, I find that the expansion team from Cache Valley, Utah, a splinter team from the Rhino-Raiders who have attracted new talent in the league never before seen, will be the “going into the season”… TEAM TO BEAT in the RMFL.

 

Right behind the Bears and Rhinos will be a trio of top-notch teams from Southeast Idaho as the Pocatello Predators, Madison Lionz and Idaho Falls Mustangs will all be right at their heels locked in a 3-way dog fight for the Northern Division championship.

 

When the Managing Board voted back in September of last year to accept the AA/AAA split proposal that I submitted, in particular the proposal option that had the AAA teams playing a 9-game season, little did they know how that vote would affect the pre-season rankings

 

The unfortunate result will be that chief rivals, Madison and Pocatello… but more importantly, Cache Valley and the Ogden Rhino-Raiders will only see each other once in the regular season.

 

More importantly than that they will not face each other as much… is that the other teams will have to face them more.

 

Specifically, what I deem as fringe playoff teams like Salt Lake, Utah Wolverines and the Boise Roughriders, whom I believe will be in another 3-way dogfight for the final (6th) seed in the 2006 playoffs, will now have a more difficult road, having to play a schedule that will include 4 games against the Rhinos and Bears (Salt Lake, Utah Wolverines) or 6 games against Madison, Idaho Falls and Pocatello (Boise).

 

I believe that Pocatello has improved enough to become southeast Idaho’s slight favorite for top team as Madison may have lost just enough on defense to create some questions.

 

I just don’t see either the Matadors or Heat having the horses to stay in the race in 2006 at all… but like I always say, there is nothing more intriguing than a good old fashioned upset… or a team that rises to the occasion and surprises everyone.  A Heat or Matador appearance in the playoffs would really be a surprise in my analysis.

 

Even with the league play extended to 9 games, EVERY game will be extremely critical, especially against divisional rivals and NO game will have the significance of the Bears/Rhino-Raiders tilt in Ogden on May 6th… be there if you can. The winner will likely grab the Southern division title, a first round bye, and the easier track to the 2006 championship.

 

PLAYOFF PROJECTIONS:  I would be very surprised if any of what I will call the “Fab Five” (Cache Valley, Ogden, Madison, Idaho Falls and Pocatello) are not within the top 5 seeds.  Which order they make it could be up for some debate.  According to the standings that I’ve projected below, Pocatello and the Bears would draw the first round bye, with the Rhino-Raiders hosting the Nemesis (just have to toss a coin on that one) and Idaho Falls at Madison… for the 3rd time this season.  The Mustangs/Madison would be a toss-up while the Rhinos versus number 6 might be all but a forgone conclusion.  Which would leave 4 of the “Fab Five” to play in the semi-finals.  I absolutely believe that anything can happen in that round, however, you cannot ignore the potentially dominating presence of the Rhino and Bears defenses.   The “most likely scenario” would mean that there could very well be that second Rhino-Raiders vs. Bears game after all… this time on that new field turf field in the league’s newest location in Logan, Utah.

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TEAM PRE-SEASON RANKINGS:

 

1 – Cache Valley Bears                                2 – Ogden Rhino-Raiders

 

 

3 – Pocatello Predators                               4 – Madison Lionz

 

 

5 – Idaho Falls Mustangs                             t6 – Utah Wolverines

 

 

t6 – Salt Lake Nemesis                                 8 – Boise Roughriders

 

 

9 – Idaho Matadors                                      10 – Utah Heat

 

 

 

 

                                      DIVISIONAL PROJECTIONS

 

North

W

L

GB

Pocatello*

7

2

-

Madison*

7

2

-

Idaho Falls*

6

3

1

Boise

3

6

4

Idaho Matadors

1

8

6

South

 

 

 

Cache Valley*

8

1

-

Ogden*

7

2

1

Salt Lake*

3

6

5

Utah Wolverines

3

6

5

Utah Heat

0

9

8

 

* Would qualify for playoffs