BAFA Premiership Final Power Ranking
- Tom Kinney
- Aug 22
- 7 min read
And with that, the 2025 BAFA Premiership regular season comes to an end, making this not only the last power ranking of the year, but also the playoff preview (where we’ll begin), and we’ll have a look at the promotion picture as it stands.
Playoffs Set
In my first ranking of the season, I outlined this weekend’s fixtures as being an unmissable part of the playoff race, and while there weren’t any huge surprises, it definitely didn’t disappoint.
In the first match of the weekend, the #1 London Warriors travelled to the South-West to face the #2 Bristol Aztecs in what I believe could be a preview for Britbowl XXXVII. Thanks to the Aztecs’ loss to the #5 London Blitz back in June, this game didn’t actually have any playoff implications - with both the Warriors and Blitz locked into the #1 and #2 seeds in the Prem South respectively - but that didn’t stop both teams playing as though everything was on the line. In the end, thanks to a missed field goal in the 4th quarter, the Aztecs had to settle for a 24-24 draw which was probably a fair result considering both teams were clearly keeping their cards close to their chest ahead of a potential post-season meeting.
In a game which did have implications for playoff seeding, the #3 Manchester Titans hosted the #4 Coventry Phoenix with the Prem North title on the line, and in complete contrast to the very even first game between these two sides, the Titans dominated. Emerging 37-6 victors, the Titans secured another Prem North title and will get the chance for a home rematch against the Bristol Aztecs, the side who knocked them out at the same stage last year. Manchester's success this year can almost entirely be put down to the patience of their coaching staff: sticking with rookie QB Charlie Martin as he found his feet at this level and trusting their defense to win them games where needed, their approach was in complete contrast to Coventry's, who moved to their third QB this season during this game, in an attempt to get the offense moving - and with the divisional title on the line, is there a worse moment to be making a change like that? The Phoenix will, however, still get a chance to avenge past playoff exits as they hit the road to face the Warriors. Though it is still to be seen whether this matchup can be as close as the 28-20 scoreline from the 2022 postseason.
The Semi-Finals will be played on the weekend of 23/24 August, to set the stage for Britbowl XXXVII on Sunday the 7th September at Butt's Park Arena in Coventry.
Eyes on next season
For most of the teams in the BAFA Premiership, the end of the regular season simply means the end of their year, and the team most frustrated with this will be the #5 London Blitz. After an excellent season where they scored 310 points, finished 7-3, and beat the Aztecs on the road, the Blitz have definitely shown that they are a playoff calibre team - and were they in the Northern division, would have almost certainly stormed into the postseason. Unfortunately they just miss out and must now shift their attention to next season. However, it is not all doom and gloom for the Blitz, who managed to flip last year's 3-7 record in only one season thanks to a young squad with star players like WR Jack Porteus and RB Keenan Dieobi-Anene who will no doubt be looking to step up further next year. If this team can take another leap this offseason, then they will no doubt be contending right at the top of this division.
Another team right on the cusp of playoff contention is the #6 East Kilbride Pirates. With the Glasgow Tigers falling short in the Division 1 playoffs, the Pirates will once again be the Premiership's only Scottish team in 2026, and thus will have another year benefitting from Britball’s best home-field advantage. This is, however, both a blessing and a curse; in their 4-3-1 season, the Pirates were only able to win 1 away game. Getting results south of the border is something they will need to figure out going into 2026 if they genuinely have the playoff ambitions that the quality of their roster would suggest.
Potentially controversially, I honestly believe that the #7 Rushmoor Knights could be the happiest team at the close of the 2025 regular season. A 4-6 record may constitute a losing record, and they may have found themselves on the wrong side of some big scorelines, but for such a young team who didn't really have an answer at QB until midseason to have completely avoided any relegation talk in their first season back in the top flight feels like a serious achievement. With so many of these young players also playing for BUCS sides, the Knights may even find key players coming back stronger after developing further during the BAFA off-season. Add players like star RB Harvey Macey (who took home the 2025 rushing title, finishing the season with 956 yards at 6.9 ypc having played just 8 full games) into the mix, and this team has the strength, quality, and now the experience, to really kick on at this level.
The other newly-promoted side, the #8 Nottingham Caesars have had an incredibly difficult season; losing QB Liam MacGovern to injury somewhat slammed the brakes on their season just as it seemed as though they were starting to get going. After losing at home to Newcastle in the opening week, they spent much of the season as the favourites to be relegated from the Prem North, but thanks to their final-day 44-6 hammering of the Vikings, a 2-6 record is enough to keep them in the top flight regardless of the Vikings’ unfortunate automatic relegation. However, the year is not without its positives for the Caesars, whose defense has performed exceptionally well at times this season: only conceding >30 points in a game on one occasion. Their rushing attack has been equally effective throughout the year, exemplified by 6 players combining for 314 ground yards in this week's win; going into 2026, they will need their passing attack to be more functional - to give their rushing attack more room to operate.
Unlike the Caesars, the #9 Cambridgeshire Cats had to take their survival campaign to the final day of the season and will no doubt need to take a massive sigh of relief before beginning to prepare for next season. After going 3-7 in 2023 (their first season in the top flight) and 6-4 last year, the Cats felt like a team on the rise; a 1-8 season where they have periodically struggled for numbers was the last thing anyone thought 2025 would have in store for them. But the one thing you can't take away from the Cats this year is the sheer effort that has gone into it. This is a team that simply would not die. If they can recruit well, retain key players and coaches, and just generally regroup, there isn't a reason why the Cats can't be a stable, competitive team at this level for the long-run.
Ups and Downs
The #10 Hertfordshire Cheetahs had hope on the final day: they needed to beat the Knights at home, and hope that the Blitz didn't slip up on the road against the Cheetahs. The Blitz more than delivered: walking away with a 46-3 win, putting the Cheetahs’ fate in their own hands - but a disappointing 23-7 loss has consigned them to the Promotion/Relegation promotion game, where they will have one last opportunity to save their spot in the 2026 Prem South. This season they have simply been plagued with injury - it feels as though they lost more key players as every week went by. No team can function like that, especially not at this level, and I really hope the entire Britball community can sympathise with them on that front. Similarly to what I said about the Cats, the Cheetahs are a team needing to rebuild and regroup. Whether they have to do that in the Premiership, or whether they have to drop down to Division 1 is still to be seen - but if they do find themselves relegated, the Prem South can be sure of one thing: they'll be back.
The #11 Newcastle Vikings’ season has been, in many ways, the worst-case scenario. Winning the first game of the season by one score, the Vikings would then find themselves losing every successive game - getting blown out 4 times and recording a loss via walkover along the way. After a playoff appearance last season, nobody is more shocked at their current situation than I am. There has been a lot of speculation around what happened, especially regarding the lead up to the walkover - but with so many different narratives cropping up, I imagine the number of people who know for sure is very small. What I do know, is that under Article 14.9 of the BAFA Contact Competition Rules and Regulations 2025, a forfeited fixture at this level will result in an automatic relegation. This is, unfortunately, largely academic though, as the Vikings’ 1-7 record would see them relegated regardless. The only difference, really, is that instead of having the lifeline of a Promotion/Relegation playoff game, both the Scunthorpe Alphas and Merseyside Nighthawks have been automatically promoted to the Prem North regardless of the score in the Division 1 North Final (thanks to the loss of the Edinburgh Wolves and the automatic relegation, the there are 2 spots needing filling in the Prem North). The Vikings have a history of success in Division 1, and will hope that at least one year at that level will allow them to rebuild and return promptly to the top-flight, as the Nighthawks have done this year.
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