The USAFL tonight announced that the 2017 National Championships will be held in San Diego, California. This will be the first time since Las Vegas hosted the tournament in 2006 that the Championships will be held on the western side of the nation and the first time in California since 2000.
As this is written there are some concerns for the venue of this year's tournament, Sarasota, Florida (October 14-16 at the Premier Sports Campus). Hurricane Matthew is making it's way across the Caribbean Sea towards Florida and could possibly do some serious damage across the state and up the east coast if it lands there. Fortunately the tournament is not this weekend, but there could be on-going issues into next week that may affect travel and the host facilities.
In the meantime we hope that all our friends on the US East coast stay safe and dry.
The USAFL last weekend streamed the seedings of all the teams in the four men's divisions for the tournament.
They are as follows
DIVISION 1
2 pools of 4 teams each. Winner of each pool advances to Grand Final.
| Seed | Pool A | Pool B |
| 1 | Austin Crows | New York Magpies |
| 2 | Los Angeles Dragons | Golden Gate Roos |
| 3 | Denver Bulldogs | Orange County Bombers |
| 4 | Quebec Saints | Dallas Magpies |
DIVISION 2
2 pools of 4 teams each. Winner of each pool advances to Grand Final.
| Seed | Pool A | Pool B |
| 1 | Sacramento Suns | Calgary Kangaroos |
| 2 | Houston Lonestars | Boston Demons |
| 3 | Columbus Jackaroos | Chicago Swans |
| 4 | Baltimore-Washington Eagles | Minnesota Freeze |
DIVISION 3
2 pools of 4 teams each. Winner of each pool advances to Grand Final.
| Seed | Pool A | Pool B |
| 1 | Portland Steelheads | North Carolina Tigers |
| 2 | Philadelphia/Balt-Wash* | Seattle Grizzlies |
| 3 | Ft. Lauderdale Fighting Squids | San Diego Lions |
| 4 | Austin Crows* | New York*/Boston* |
*Denotes reserves squad
DIVISION 4
3 pools of 3 teams each. Pool winners and best runner up advances to semifinal on Sunday.
| Seed | Pool A | Pool B | Pool C |
| 1 | Tulsa Buffaloes | Denver Bulldogs* | Houston Lonestars* |
| 2 | Nashville/Indianapolis/Cleveland | Des Moines/Milwaukee/KC/LA* | Ohio Valley River Rats |
| 3 | Tampa Bay ARFC | Atlanta/Baton Rouge | Golden Gate*/Columbus* |
*Denotes reserves squad
The women's divisions are yet to be confirmed but likely to be broken into two divisions. ...