Arena Football One released their 2025 schedule this week, with a full schedule release show and a myriad of after-shows on different arena content creator channels. I'm not one for cheap plugs, but if I were this is where I would link the Live episode with AF1 Commissioner Jeff Fisher -- but again that's not my style.
But only a couple months after forming as it's own league entity and what somehow felt like years of expansion rumors, speculation and the forums being abuzz -- it is finally here!
First things first, visually this layout is pretty sweet. It's pretty easy to follow and I'm a big fan of each team kinda having their own hue that catches the eye (Orlando & Wilkes Barre will have to to duke it out for the color red next time).
Second things second, some of the dates are locked in for these games, but some are still to be announced at a later date as the tiny print states at the bottom of the graphic. Some dates throughout the season are still up in the air due to a couple different factors, including but not limited to potential streaming and TV deals that may require some games to be shifted around, which then causes some headaches on the venue side of things as well.
It's nothing that can't be overcome, but will be some worth keeping an eye on information is announced and partnerships start to get announced.
A couple things stood out to me about the schedule:
Billing Outlaws won't have a home game until Week 6
This was one of the most shocking elements of the schedule for me when this launched. (It was literally the first thing I tweeted after the schedule released.) Now this could be due to arena availability, but looking at the MetraPark Arena website there is literally nothing on the calendar right now from February 22nd through April 12th.
No Limits Monster Trucks sounds rad as hell, tho
This feels like a classic "other team's arenas only could work with these dates so Billings bent over backwards to help them out" situation. It's just insane that the defending ArenaBowl champions won't have an opening night celebration, or any type of home game PERIOD until Week 6.
On the flip side, having six of your last 8 games be at home while you make a playoff push sounds awesome and could be an incredible advantage for them. The first two games are against expansion franchises, so that veteran leadership from Coach Walker will come in handy there and this whole home game situation could be the best thing to happen to the 2025 Billings Outlaws.
Triple Round Robin Scheduling
In my chat with Jeff Fisher that I won't be linking again, he mentioned how travel can be a backbreaker for teams financially. Costs are a major factor in a lot of spring football & indoor/arena football leagues failing, and contributed to some of the issues of the AFL last year.
With the team list for 2025 finalizing, the league announced the divisions and how they would be split up -- and it makes a lot of sense.
The teams being grouped up into the West, Central & East makes sense and will make life a lot easier travel wise.
Orlando, being one of the tourist capitals of the world, has a ton of direct flights in and out of there -- which will make travel to and from each of their East division opponents easier, but probably a little more costly.
All the Kansas teams in the Central division are all day trips from each other. (Sorry, Corpus Christi). Travel wise, the West isn't too bad either.
Setting it up so every team plays each of their division rivals 3 times each ensures not just that travel logistics are simplified -- but we should also see a true division winner from each. Do I wish that we saw some more first time matchups like a Billings-Orlando or Corpus Christi-Albany? Of course, but the Triple Round Robin is a necessity, especially in the league's first year of existence.
Holy Back-to-Backs, Batman
In what was described as "uh yeah that's a schedule right there" and "uniquely weird" by one Central division head coach, there's quite a few times in this schedule where teams play each other in back to back weeks:
Albany-Orlando - Weeks 12-13
Arizona-Oregon - Weeks 7-8
Billings-Washington - Weeks 11-12
Corpus Christi-SW Kansas - Weeks 13-14
Oregon-Washington - Weeks 2-3
Salina-SW Kansas - Weeks 3-4
SW Kansas-Wichita - Weeks 1-2
SW Kansas getting THREE sets of back-to-backs is pretty...uniquely weird. But this could be absolutely awesome in terms of building out these rivalries. Some things will most certainly carry over from week to week in some of these matchups, and you would expect that the second half of these back to backs would be very physical games. (maybe hammer the Unders in second games of back to backs? Let's put a pin in that and come back to it)
But the back to backs will certainly be interesting. I don't hate it, but I would be interested to hear from the individual fanbases and how they feel about it. Facing the same team as the week prior could potentially lead to some 'same team fatigue'** and might cause some excitement to hypothetically dwindle for some of these matchups. But I'm probably getting way ahead of myself with my hypotheticals here.
**idk if 'same team fatigue' is an actual thing. It feels like there is a better term for when you get diminishing returns from facing the same team/obstacle multiple times, but I can't think of it. DM me on X/Twitter if you know a better word for this.
The Kansas based teams only leave the state three times each all year
It was expected that all of the Kansas based teams would all be lumped together in the same division, purely out of convenience for one another and to really cut down on some travel expenses and logistics nightmares that some teams had to deal with last year.
But you have to absolutely love this if you are a fan of any of these teams:
The Salina Liberty don't leave the state of Kansas from 3/21-5/16.
SW Kansas Storm don't leave the state of Kansas until Week 7.
Wichita Regulators don't leave the state of Kansas until Week 6.
Considering each city is within 2.5 hours of each other, these are very reasonable travel accommodations for the the Liberty, Storm & Regulators. That alone has to be worth a win or two down the stretch, right?
Strength of Schedule is a crap shoot right now
This was something I was very curious about going into the schedule release show, but when you take into account how crazy the roster turnover from year to year is with these leagues -- strength of schedule is something that can shift dramatically over the course of a few weeks. I mean heck, some folks thought Billings were a Tier 3 team before last season.
But with the introduction of the triple round robin scheduling accounting for 75% of each team's schedule, it tones down how drastically different schedules can be on paper.
Full Breakdown of Non-Division Games:
Albany
Billings, @Salina, SW Kansas
Arizona
@Orlando, Nashville, @SW Kansas
Billings
@Albany, @Corpus Christi, Salina
Corpus Christi
Billings, @Washington, @Orlando
Nashville
Washington, @Oregon, @Arizona
Oregon
Nashville, @Wichita, Salina
Orlando
Arizona, @Wichita, Corpus Christi
Salina
Albany, @Billings, @Oregon
Southwest Kansas
Wilkes Barre, @Albany, Arizona
Washington
Wilkes Barre, @Nashville, Corpus Christi
Wichita
Orlando, Oregon, @Wilkes Barre
Wilkes Barre
@Washington, @SW Kansas, Wichita
Now it is wayyyy to early to say whether a team has an 'easy' or 'hard' non-division schedule strictly because some teams have yet to announce their head coach and begin to sign players, but you gotta think that the Salina Liberty's non-division schedule is particularly brutal:
Week 6 - Albany
Week 10 - @Billings
Week 13 - @Oregon
Facing the two finalists from last year that are returning their leadership and some key pieces on the field, plus an Oregon team led by a coach that went undefeated last year before things went south off the field? Those will be some fun games to watch.
Week 1
Week 1 appears to be locked in date wise with the season kicking off with one of the best, most bitter rivalries in all of arena football that has brewed for decades:
Albany vs Orlando.
Then we see games all throughout the weekend, and we'll get to see the home debuts of a couple different expansion teams as well.
Overall, the schedule is solid and meets a lot of the criteria that the league needed it to meet in their first year. With Stockton & Monterrey coming in 2026, maybe a couple more teams join them to make it 16 total. That could potentially shift everything around in terms of regional proximity and has the potential to make travel even easier on these teams.
Is it uniquely weird? You could say that, I guess. But as a wise AF1 Commissioner once said, "In any of these alternative type of leagues, the biggest problem they have is travel. The travel expense can be crippling if you are not careful." (the rule of three, had to do it one more time)
Which week stands out the most to you? Which matchup are you looking forward to?
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