It's that time of year again, for football is back. That's right, the NinFL has returned, and it's better than ever. The number of teams has been cut, the rosters are brimming with stars, and the playoff system has been streamlined. Defending champion Corneria returns to defend their Nintendo Bowl XXII championship, and Nintendo Bowl loser Drowning Pool (renamed Hocotate) will look to avoid the dreaded "loser's jinx" that has plagued football in recent years.

Here are the teams for this year's NinFL. 4 teams have been cut from the league (mostly duplicate teams within 1 nintendo franchise), resulting in 20 teams for this year's league. The 20 teams have been repositioned into 2 conferences of 10, each of which have 2 divisions of 5 teams. Here are the divisions (along with the adjusted final records from last season for each team):

Miyamoto East
Mushroom Kingdom (12-4)
Marble Zone (10-6)
Dream Land (9-7)
Rose Town (8-8)
Onett (2-14)


Miyamoto West
Corneria (13-3)
Mute City (8-8)
Zebes (7-9)
Kingdom Hearts (6-10)
Advance Wars (6-10)

Yamauchi East
Hocotate (11-5)
Hyrule (9-7)
Final Fantasy (8-8)
Bern (8-8)
Animal Crossing (1-15)

Yamauchi West
Saffron City (11-5)
Kongo Jungle (10-6)
Isle O' Hags (9-7)
Resident Evil (7-9)
ACDC Town (5-11)

I'll have the first week's schedule of games up, along with a lot of other information later on.

Week 1 NinFL Schedule (September 4-8)

Week 1 of the NinFL should be good, as it opens up Thursday night with defending champion Corneria hosting division rival Mute City. The Monday night game this week should also be a dandy, as defending Yamauchi conference champ Hocotate hosts division rival Bern.

Week 1 Schedule (the pointspreads are listed, more on that later today)
Mute City at Corneria (-9) (Thursday)
Rose Town at Mushroom Kingdom (-12)
Onett at Marble Zone (-8.5)
Advance Wars at Dream Land (-7)
Zebes at Kingdom Hearts (-2)
Hyrule at Final Fantasy (0, pick em)
Animal Crossing at ACDC Town (-11)
Saffron City (-3) at Resident Evil
Isle O'Hags at Kongo Jungle (-4.5)
Bern at Hocotate (-6.5) (Monday)

NinFL Week 1 results: (Will be updated again for Monday)

Mute City 10
Corneria 45

Corneria had a pair of long scoring drives to open the game, and then took advantage of a pair of Mute City turnovers in the 2nd quarter to take a 28-0 lead into the half. Up 45-3 early in the fourth, Corneria pulled their starters out of the game to a raucous ovation from the fans. Mute City finally found the end zone with 5:04 left on a Jody Summers touchdown grab, but the game was way out of reach by that point. Fox McCloud threw for three touchdowns in the game and rushed for another to lead the Cornerian attack. Falco, Krystal, and Peppy Hare all had touchdown catches in the game, and Leon Powalski rushed for a TD as well. Captain Falcon had a horrible night for Mute City, going 14-31 for 135 yards, a pick, and a fumble that was returned for a TD by Tricky Earthwalker.


Rose Town 3
Mushroom Kingdom 21

Mushroom Kingdom's defense just harassed Rose Town's offense in this game. DT Bowser and MLB Wario were absolutely devastating against the middle of the Rose Town offensive line as QB Mouser and RB Croco had nowhere to go. Yoshi had a strong game at quarterback for Mushroom Kingdom, throwing a pair of touchdown passes in the first half, one to Peach, another to Luigi. Mario added a rushing TD in the third to really put this one away as MK ran the ball most of the second half.


Onett 6
Marble Zone 28

This game was really never close either, as DT Dr. Eggman was blowing up plays in the backfield all game long against Onett. Running the ball was impossible, and QB Ness had a rough time finding open targets against the fast Marble Zone defense. Offensively, the hedgehogs' spread option attack had lots of success as they rushed for 327 yards on the ground, including 2 scores by Shadow and 1 by Sonic. Onett was just completely overmatched from the get-go.


Advance Wars 13
Dream Land 17

Finally a close game! Dream Land took a 7-0 lead on a Gim touchdown pass to Kirby, but AW responded with a Napalmman touchdown rush. After two quarters of solid defense left it a 10-10 tie, AW scored a field goal to take a 13-10 lead with 4:53 left. But that's when Dream Land hit their one big play of the game, a 67 yard touchdown pass from Gim to Metaknight to take the lead. AW had one last shot and got the ball down to the Dream Land 19 yard line, but could not convert on a 4th and 6 with 1:01 remaining.


Zebes 10
Kingdom Hearts 14

In a woefully defensive contest, Kingdom Hearts came out on top, thanks to their ability to stop the run. Sylux rushed 13 times for 12 yards, and Samus was forced to throw 47 times. Kingdom Hearts took the initial lead on a 12-yard touchdown pass from Sora to Kairi. Zebes rallied to take the lead on a 7 yard touchdown keeper by Samus, but with 13:55 remaining, Samus was intercepted by Donald Duck, who returned it 44 yards for a touchdown. The KH defense did it's job from there, and they got the home victory to open the season.


Hyrule 31
Spira 34 F/OT

Final Fantasy's warriors had a tough task in their opener, and they got it done in thrilling fashion. But early on it didn't look good, as Link rushed for a pair of early scores to take a 14-0 lead. Hyrule led 21-7 at the break, but Spira rallied from behind thanks to a 13-yard TD pass from Tidus to Yuna, then tied it with 4-yard touchdown rush by Riku. With 5:14 left, Auron sacked Zelda and picked up the loose ball, going 24 yards to give Spira the lead. Hyrule had one last chance to tie the game, and Zelda was perfect in the 2-minute drill, eventually finding Impa for a 6 yard touchdown pass with :19 remaining. In overtime, Spira won the toss and deferred, giving Hyrule the ball first. Hyrule was stuffed on a huge 3-and-1 play at the Spira 16, resulting in a field goal. Spira took their turn, and on the second play from scrimmage, Tidus found Yuna again, this time for a walk off 25-yard TD pass.


Animal Crossing 0
ACDC Town 9

This was an ugly team between two teams not likely to contend this season, and I say that because both teams turned it over 3 times in the first half, resulting in 0 points for either team. Probably the best play of the game was a punt by ACDC Town early in the third, which was downed at the one. Tom Nook was tackled in the end zone on the next play for a safety. Following the free kick, ACDC Town had their best drive of the game, driving 57 yards and finishing it with a 1 yard touchdown sneak by Megaman. Although they didn't win, AC can take solace in the fact that they did cover the pointspread for the first time since October of 2007.


Saffron City 42
Resident Evil 14

What happened here?! Resident Evil was the only team to not defend their home turf on Sunday, and it wasn't even close. Mewtwo had a ridiculous game throwing the ball, passing for 357 yards and 4 touchdowns, making him our NinFL Fantasy Player of the Week. Saffron was up 28-7 at halftime, and rubbed it in further on the first play of the second half when an Ada Wong fumble was picked up by Raichu and returned 64 yards for a touchdown. Leon Kennedy was terrible at QB also, going 19-38 with 213 yards, 1 TD, and 2 INT. He was also sacked 6 times as the pokemon defensive line was awesome. Arcanine had 2.5 of those sacks.


Isle O'Hags 20
Kongo Jungle 24

It was a close, tough game in this rareware rivalry. Kongo Jungle scored twice early on thanks to a 64-yard reverse rush by Diddy Kong and a 31 yard TD pass from Donkey Kong to Dixie Kong, the latter a ridiculous over the head catch in double coverage. Isle O'Hags didn't panic though, and they went to work with their power rushing attack. Banjo ended up with 137 yards rushing and two scores on 28 carries, the latter score putting his team ahead 20-17 with 8:17 to go. But the Kongs answered the bell, and DK led his team down the field, scoring the go-ahead TD on a 2-yard touchdown plunge by Chunky Kong with 2:49 to play. Isle O'Hags had one last shot, but Gruntilda was intercepted by Squawks with 1:22 left to seal the victory for Kongo Jungle.

Bern 14
Hocotate 13

Bern picks up a huge road victory in their opening game. Purple Pikmin had a rough night running the ball for Hocotate, rushing 20 times for just 37 yards. The front seven of Bern was tough and physical all night, making it tough for Hocotate to move the ball. Still Captain Olimar managed the game well enough, and scored the only touchdown on a quarterback keeper from 1 yard out in the 3rd quarter to take a 13-7 lead. Hocotate's defense held, and they had a great chance to run the clock out, but again, just couldn't run the football when they needed to. Bern got the ball back with 1:34 left, and Ike found Elincia on a 45 yard deep pass, the longest play of the game, to reach the Hocotate 17. 3 plays later, Bern scored the game winner on a 2-yard reverse touchdown rush by Roy.

Week 1's Sunday games are in the process of being updated.

Week 2 NinFL Schedule:

Dream Land at Marble Zone (-6) - Thursday night football
Corneria (-8.5) at Zebes
Advance Wars (-2.5) at Mute City
Mushroom Kingdom (-10) at Onett
Kingdom Hearts at Rose Town (0, pick em)
Hocotate at Hyrule (-3)
Spira (-7) at Animal Crossing
Resident Evil at Bern (-5.5)
ACDC Town at Isle O'Hags (-2)
Kongo Jungle at Saffron City (-6.5) - Monday night football game of the week

It's a huge shame that this didn't go really as planned.

Meh, there was just too much going on. Couldn't sustain it. oh well.