The regular season is finally over and the quest for a Puck Bowl Championship starts for four very deserving teams. For the other six teams the end of the season marks the begining of the planning phase for the next year.
Kalamazoo earned the first seed by winning the final eleven games. The Vikings are becoming used to finishing first during the regular season as for the second year in a row they came out with twelve wins to lead the league. Last year however, the first seed did not bode well for the Vikings as they lost to Seattle in the Puck Bowl. Kalamazoo must first go thru Wisconsin, one of the two teams that managed to defeat the Vikings this year.
Seattle, the defending champions, hope to continue their winning ways by staying the only team to win a championship in this league. In order to repeat as champions, the Slugs must first defeat the only team they have not been able to this year, Rhode Island, a week-2 loss (112-93).
Rhode Island's story of the playoffs stems from last year when they were narrowly edged out for the last playoff spot by Timbuktu, a quarter of a game ahead of them. Believing the Ridicule had a better team, 443 more fantasy points, Coach Libby kept as many of her players as possible, hoped on a good draft, and decided to make a run for the playoffs in 2000. The Ridicule succeed in their goals for 2000 except not being able to seek revenge against their rival Timbuktu (a week-6 tie and a week-10 seven point loss). They hope to forget the past and try to win a championship with the knowledge that Timbuktu will be sitting home for the playoffs.
Wisconsin started out the year really strong going 7-1 and looking unstopable. Then tragedy struck when partially due to a fried modem, the Wannabes finished out a miserable 1-5 losing the last four games of the season. Wisconsin does have a little to look forward to going into their game against the first seed Kalamazoo as they handed the Vikings their first loss in week-2 (127-99). Hopefully, Coach Sue will be able to make it to a computer this week so she can have a better chance against the 12-2 Vikings looking for revenge.
The rest of the teams in the league have no playoffs to look forward to, but there is a few things to note. The Rocko Bengals should be commended for the fine job they did to turn around argueably the worst team last year to a very forminable .500 team that nearly made the playoffs. The Green Bay Fudgepackers with the worst record this year showed how hard it is to win consistantly with a majority of your roster devoted to one NFL team. Finally, it looks like the expansion team Byron Center Bears will not be returning next year due to a bad attitude and bad sportsmanship. Their absence will open up a spot in the league for a new expansion team, or will force a current team to be dropped if a new team cannot be found.
