Before the 2007 season, when the number of teams expanded to six, the league split to North and South consisting of three teams each. The following year, the number of teams in each conference increased to four; this time, while the number stays at four, the grouping will no longer be geographically based, which should give the league more balanced conferences.
On one side, the Gladiators, the Dukes, the Silverhawks and the Cowboys will form a group, and on the other, the Vukovi, the Wolves, the Blue Devils and the Thunder will compete for two playoff spots in their own group.
Of course, the conference strength instantly becomes skewed with the addition of the Blue Devils to the league. They had to be fit in somewhere, and so they, the Vukovi and the Wolves will form an ultra-competitive group, whose biggest casualty might be the fourth group team, and last year’s winless team: the Zagreb Thunder. Overall, quality of play is expected to rise dramatically this year.
The decisions were made at the annual league meeting with all the teams. The number of games was cut from 10 to 8, and teams will play two inter-conference games less, meaning they won’t play all the teams from the other conference. The inter-conference schedule was made with last year’s results in mind — so the Vukovi will, for instance play two of the top four teams from last year in the Dukes and the Gladiators — but also with a wish to maintain the regional matchups, so the Gladiators will play the Blue Devils, even though the Blue Devils essentially took the spot of last year’s last place team.
The league will kickoff on the 14th of March, and the dates of the final week, and with it the dates of the start of the postseason and the bowl game will be determined when the final schedule is arranged. The full schedule will be finalized at the end of this week.
The issue of television broadcasts that were arranged with Sportklub was raised, and it was said that the league is closing in on securing the financial structure with the outlook looking bright for Serbia, Hungary and Croatia and some more talks needed in Slovenia.
Among other minor changes, the league has allowed two additional stars in the star system, allowing the teams to carry 8 stars on the roster, but the restriction of 6 still applies for gamedays. Star system was agreed upon last year — in it, every American player who played college football represents 2 stars, while any other represents 1.