History
The NIFL, based in Lafayette, Louisiana, was founded by Carolyn Shiver. The league started operations in 2001, with many teams coming from Indoor Football League being bought the previous year and folding operations. In 2002, the league added in the teams from the Indoor Professional Football League. 2003 was the most successful year for the league as 24 teams played a mostly complete schedule, with few cancellations.
Before the 2005 season, nine teams left the league to form United Indoor Football. That same year though, the Intense Football League ceased operations and four teams from there joined the league. Those teams however, left the league before the 2006 season started.
For the 2005 season, the NIFL had an agreement with NFL to handle referee assignment and training. The agreement was not renewed after the season was over.
The 2006 season, was the most chaotic for the league to that point. Ten expansion teams were added to the league, but nine of them had problems that reflected badly on the league. The most notable situation was the owner of the Montgomery Maulers firing the entire team. None of the ten expansion teams returned to the league for the next season.
The 2007 season started with several league-owned expansion teams added in, primarily to supplement games with the returning teams. However, the teams were all poorly funded and had problems. On May 11, 2007, the ten independently-owned franchises banded together and left the NIFL. These ten teams played against each other as independents for the remainder of the 2007 season. Of these teams, 7 have left the league for good. No announcement has been made from the other team owners. No playoffs were held at the end of the season. San Diego Shockwave were declared the official league champion, however, an unofficial championship game was played by Wyoming Cavalry and Fayetteville Guard, with Fayetteville winning.
An attempt was made to start a 2008 season, but failed due to not having any teams willing to play in the league.
Read more about this topic: National Indoor Football League
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