British University American Football - Mid Season Report
- Chris Tebbutt
- 19 minutes ago
- 13 min read
So, as we reach the halfway point of the British University American Football season as Week 8 has come to a close, what better time to look back on the first seven weeks of BUCS American and highlight the teams that have surprised us and those whose first half of the season has left us bewildered.
National Premiership:
When comparing the 25/26 and 24/25 seasons in the National Premiership, there are some striking similarities. Leeds Beckett struggles to maintain the grip of the highest level of Uniball, the Nottingham Gold defeating the reigning champion UWE Bullets by a single point, and the Durham Saints make a real push to be a team that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the phrase “National Champions.”
Though there seems to be a real shift in the zeitgeist of Uniball, with the four-time consecutive national championship-winning UWE Bullets not looking like UWE Bullets of the last four seasons, an air of uncharacteristic struggle clouds the UWE Bullets. But their 28-17 victory over the Durham Saints helps filter out some of the doubts.
When we enter 2026, the Bullets will have a massive two-week stretch, away at Durham on the 7th of February and welcoming the Gold to Hillside Gardens for a Valentine’s Day clash with no love lost.
The Nottingham Gold vs the Durham Saints game to cap off the first half of the season did not disappoint. With the Saints shaking up the Uniball-verse defeating the Nottingham Gold 38-13. We once again find ourselves in basically the exact same situation as last year. Nottingham beat UWE by one point and then Durham defeated the Gold at home. The only difference is the scoreline, instead of just five points like last year, a massive 25-point victory for the Saints makes the Prem National the place to be and all eyes to turn.
As it tends to be for these National Premiership sides, the new year does not only bring another slate of games but players joining University in January which could end up completely changing the dynamic of the National Premiership. But for right now, the Bullets once again find themselves at the top of my power rankings thanks to Durham tackling the Gold.
Premiership: North
Warwick & NTU
On the week six episode of “The Uniball”, my co-host SJ, and I prognosticated whether or not we are a season of Uniball prosperity or depression, and found ourselves siding with the former, citing the Premiership North as the best example that we live in a prime space for British University American Football.
The champions of the division last year, the Warwick Wolves, seemed to be off to a start that would have seen them reclaim their throne. Defeating NTU and Northumbria the start the season. But as of week 6 the Wolves have had a duo of shocking results.
First, losing to the team that the Wolves have one of the longest-standing Uniball rivalries with, the NTU Renegades. Given that the Wolves defeated NTU by a margin of 4 in their Week 2 fixture and NTU managed to defeat Warwick by 7, positioning the NTU Renegades at the top of the Prem North at the halfway point of the season.
But it went from bad to worse for the Wolves, losing to the at the time 1-2 Newcastle Raiders by a single point in Week 7, taking the reigning champions from a 2-0 start to a 2-2 finish with NTU holding the head to head over them. Though Warwick managed to claw back a win, although only 8-0 over the struggling Leeds Gryphons still keep red flags above the Warwick camp.
Newcastle & Northumbria:
Whilst in the middle of the Prem North, two teams from the banks of the River Tyne are doing much better than expected. Newcastle, being in the relegation zone the last two years, would set the tone for them to do the same this year, but a Week 1 victory over the Leeds Gryphons and a Week 6 victory over the Wolves may ultimately save the Raiders even though they sit at 2-2 now, after losing 25-0 to NTU in Week 8.
The Newcastle Raiders' single loss comes from their varsity rivals in the Northumbria Mustangs, the team I had picked to be relegated this year. But once again they have blasted that prediction out of the water, picking up wins over Newcastle and Leeds, although falling to the Wolves and Renegades.
Leeds:
A perennial contender for promotion and regarded by the pundits over at DepthChartSports as a safe bet for playoffs proves why Uniball is the best sport on earth as the Gryphons find themselves winless at the halfway point of the season.
Shock and surprise for Leeds losing to Newcastle and Northumbria early in the season, but not even a break could aid the Gryphons, having four weeks off before facing the NTU Renegades, which took Leeds to 0-3 in a 35-6 loss. Although a Week 8 loss to the Wolves once again damaged Leeds, holding the reigning Prem North Champions to just 8-0 lends itself for optimism in the Gryphons camp, but they are still in the relegation position.
Leeds are going to have to focus on that second game with Northumbria and hope the Mustangs don’t win another game if they want to stay in the Northern Premiership.
Premiership South:
After 8 years stuck in Division One, making the playoffs every single year within that time frame, the Brunel Burners have made their presence felt in the Prem South, going an undefeated 5-0 going into the halfway point of the season.
Defeating such teams as Portsmouth, Exeter and SGS, all teams that at some point over the last 8 seasons have eliminated the Burners from the playoffs but their biggest competition comes from a team that has finally found form after years of floundering around the relegation drain.
The Cardiff Cobras only lost to Brunel in Week 7 in the final minutes of the game, 20-15 but with the Cobras taking wins off of Exeter and Portsmouth and running it close with the SGS Pride, it finally seems as though the Cobras have established themselves as a true premiership contender.
The Portsmouth Destroyers started the season in an uncharacteristically bad fashion, losing their first three, 39-8 to Brunel, then 46-14 to Cardiff, and then 19-0 to SGS in weeks 1-3. Then, on the Exeter side of things, the Demons started their season in Week 6, putting in a good performance against the Burners, giving the Demons some hope that they’ll be safe from relegation as they faced off with the 0-3 Destroyers.
A Portsmouth win 20-6 firmly placed the Demons in the relegation position, with February 8th now being key for both squads as it is the rematch and likely will give us the result for who will be playing Division 1 football next year.
Scottish 1:
The Edinburgh Napier Knights were the runners-up to promotion last season, and they have continued their dominance of the Scottish 1 with eyes to be the Scottish representative in the Premiership. Defeating, arguably, the second-place team in Scotland, the Stirling Clansmen by 35-0 in Week 2 and then smashing the Heriot-Watt Wolverines before allowing their first points of the season in a 42-6 victory over Edinburgh.
A Week 8 victory over Stirling, this time 39-14 all but guarantees Napier the top spot in Scotland, a rematch with Edinburgh in February looks as though it will be Napier’s but they only opponent they haven't faced yet is the Glasgow Uni Tigers but with Glasgow sitting on a 3-1-1 record, my money is on Napier to crown themselves champions once again and I doubt I’d get good odds them doing so.
Northern 1:
In very much the same vein as the Scottish 1, the Lancashire Rams are looking to dominate again on route to the playoffs, especially now they are the biggest dog in the Northern 1. Undefeated and with not a single point against them, the Rams are running the table at 5-0. Questions turn to the post-season already as the Rams’ form in the playoffs over the last two years has been poor, losing very early on and not reaching their full potential, though this year, if the final is Lancashire vs Napier, I’d be surprised.
On the other side of the coin, both the Edge Hill Vikings and Liverpool Raptors are in the relegation zone, brought around by the double relegation that affects both the Midlands & Northern 1 as the worst-performing fourth-place team will also find themselves playing D2 next year.
Edge Hill getting up to the D1 Level is a massive accomplishment, but finding themselves in one of the toughest divisions hasn’t been ideal for the Vikings as they sit at 0-3 with a loss to the other Liverpool-based side, who are also in trouble.
The Liverpool Raptors got pulled up to the Premiership last season after finally making their way up to D1 after back-to-back D2 Northern Championships. Winning just a single game in the Prem last season over the Newcastle Raiders sent the Raptors back down, and now Liverpool find themselves at 1-4 and with the Derby Braves in the Midlands 1 having a better points against than the Raptors, it could be a return back down the division that made the Raptors champions.
Midlands 1:
The division that you could argue has been short-changed in the predictions for who will be promoted up from D1 North into the Premiership in the wake of the Lancashire Rams & Edinburgh Napier Knights but with the tear the Nottingham Green has been on, injecting their name into the promotion picture is something that must be recognised.
Undefeated going into the halfway point of the season, the Green with their biggest win coming 24-16 against the Sheffield Hallam Warriors, who themselves are a playoff-contending side and will be looking to get that win back late on in the season. But the Green are looking hot going into the Christmas break. But the 25th of January will most likely decide who will be claiming the Midlands 1.
Now the relegation zone for the Midlands 1 is sadly pretty cut and dry at this point, the Leicester Longhorns have the unfortunate distinction of being the only 0-6 team in Division 1 so far, with their only hope being to defeat the Braves by 11 and then pick up a win over Sheffield Hallam or Nottingham but given the past results it doesn’t look likely.
The battle for the dreaded double relegation place brought about by the Scottish 1 not relegating a team looked to be between the Derby Braves and Liverpool Raptors, and it was looking shaky for the Braves after their 31-21 loss to the Sheffield Sabres earlier in the season. But the Braves managed to find a light in the darkness, a 6-6 draw to Sheffield in Week 8, where that single BUCS point looks like it could be a life preserver for Derby’s D1 hopes.
South West 1:
One of the strangest divisions in all of football. The Bournemouth Uni Bobcats are undefeated but sit in second place after a -3.5 game penalty levied against them by BUCS before the start of the season. Although it is do or die for the Bobcats, the pressure is on them, but they have risen to it. Defeating both the Bath Killer Bees and Bristol Barracuda twice in the first half of the season, leaving only the Stags and Blitz who reside in the bottom half of the table left for them come the regular season.
The Bobcats can’t win the division, but they are on the right path to make the playoffs, as I can’t see them losing a game, although with the KCL vs Kent Draw in the South East, there is a reality we live in where the Bobcats will go undefeated and not see the post-season and what is worse for Bournemouth is that their destiny is not in their own hands.
The Bristol Barracuda, a heavily defensive side enters the Christmas break at the top of the South West 1 after a 12-7 victory in a classic Friday Night Lights event over the Bath Killer Bees. With only Plymouth and a pivotal, division-deciding rematch with the Killers Bees left on their regular season schedule, it’s looking up for Bristol but that rematch with Bath is going to be must watch football.
South East 1:
A hotly competitive division, with shutouts and draws between the top three squads, whilst there is a race that will be settled for who will be relegated this weekend between the bottom two.
Coming into the season, the Kent Falcons were the favourites to win this division by most, with the consensus of the Brighton Panthers' move to the South East 1 saving them from relegation paints a picture of two teams on opposite sides of the table.
However, a 12-0 victory over the Falcons by the Panthers was a cause for surprise, but a return fixture saw the Falcons shutout the Panthers 24-0, once again throwing any predictions out the window.
The KCL Regents reared their head into the title picture, though a draw with the Kent Falcons makes this division a hard one to pick when looking at the top of the table.
Relegation-wise it is looking like it’ll be between two squads, the UCL Emperors and the Kingston Cougars. But as we finished Week 8 we know who the team in the danger zone is. These two squads have the odd circumstance of playing each other back-to-back, with UCL taking the win 21-16 in Week 7.
The Kingston Cougars managed to rally and win 12-0 thus taking the head-to-head over UCL and dropping the Emperors into the relegation battle and given UCL’s schedule sees rematches with Kent, KCL & Brighton, so the D1 future of UCL doesn’t look massively bright.
Southern 1:
Although the Hertfordshire Hurricanes have a blemish on their record, they are still looking real good after their 35-0 shutout victory over the Birmingham Lions, the team that handed them their loss after a QB Kneel went horrifically wrong for the Hurricanes, allowing the Lions to kick a field goal and win their first game.
Oxford Brookes were also on an undefeated role and sit at 3-1 after running into the Hurricanes, whilst Brookes seem as though they are going to make the playoffs, the Hurricanes look like prime candidates for promotion out of D1.
Both UEA and Oxford have traded wins, with Oxford taking the first fixture 28-6 over the Pirates, and it was looking pretty grim for UEA. But in Week 7, UEA took home their first win of the season 26-18 but the score difference is not enough to save the UEA Pirates for now; they’ll need another win and hope for another Oxford loss if they want to stay up. But right now, the Lancers are still going to be playing D1 Football next year.
North East 2:
It only took until the final week of the season for a team in this division to win a game.
Two draws for York, one a piece for Hull and Sunderland, made this division a strange place for 90% of the first half of the season.
But in the first game of the season for YSJ Jaguars in Week 8 of the season the Sunderland Spartans took away a 44-0 victory, placing them atop the division.
Though with so many games left to play in this division, including rematches with York, the North East 2 is still up for grabs and is still the hardest division to pick.
North West 2:
I will say the North West 2 is in only a slightly better position than the North East 2. There is a frontrunner in this division, and it’s the Lancaster Bombers, dispatching both the Staffordshire Stallions and the upstart Salford Storm.
The LJMU Fury, who were relegated from D1 last season, much like YSJ played their first game of the season against the Keele Crusaders in Week 8 and came away with a 27-0 victory. Thus making the LJMU vs Lancaster game on the first of February likely to be for who will be playing D1 Football next year.
Midlands 2:
Before this season started, if you had said that Cambridgeshire would have the eyes on the Midlands 2 upon it I don’t know if I would have believed you. Still, as it stands, the ARU Siege sit upon the top of the Midlands 2 with their rivals in the Coldham’s Cup rivalry game, the Cambridge Pythons being the ones nipping at their heels, although a misstep from the Siege in Week 7 may come back to haunt them.
The Siege’s journey to the top has been one of close wins and a single loss, defeating Lincoln & Cambridge by a point, with only their first meeting with the DMU Lions showing the Siege can bring the pressure, as they walked away with a 35-6 victory. With that large a victory margin, the second meeting going the way of the Siege was expected, but ARU reverted to their short-scoreline form, losing by a single point, 18-19, and giving DMU their first win of the season.
Cambridge Pythons need to maintain their momentum in 2026 as they’ll have a tough battle as they have to take on the Lincoln Colonials and Coventry Uni Jets in successive weeks, ahead of what is likely to be an all-time classic “win and up” as the Coldham’s Cup 2026 between ARU and Cambridge could be for more than just Cambridgeshire-based bragging rights.
South East 2:
Much like the Midlands 2 not having a favourite going into the halfway point of the season, it’s basically the same for the SE2. Two teams meeting early on in the season, with one taking a single point victory, setting up a “win and up” game in the last week of the regular season.
Two formerly D1 sides looking to climb back up to the promised land, the Imperial Immortals and QMBL Vipers, met in Week 2 of the season, and the Immortals took the victory by a single point, ending the game with a memeable 6-7.
Both teams have gone on to win the rest of the games they have played so far, with Imperial beating Essex and QMBL beating both Essex and Greenwich.
South West 2:
We’ve got a two-horse race in the South West, which is a nice change of pace compared to last year, where Plymouth’s victory over the UWE 2s early in the season last year basically spelt promotion in the first three weeks.
It seemed as though this season was the UWE 2’s season to lose, being in the conversation for promotion in the last two seasons and with the Swasnea Titans once again being relegated back down into division two after scoring 2 points in the entire 24/25 season back up at the D1 level it seemed as though the Titans would be in a rebuild.
However, both seem to be on level pegging. The UWE 2s started their season off hot with a massive scoreline against the Gloucestershire Gladiators, defeating them 38-6. Whilst the Titans in their second game put a beating on the Bath Spa Bulldogs 54-0.
Neither team put up massive scorelines against the Worcester Royals, with UWE defeating them 7-12 and Swansea defeating them 18-2. Both teams are trending towards a showdown on February 8th in Swansea for a battle that will probably decide who goes up to a difficult South West 1.
Southern 1:
After two seasons of going down to the wire and losing their final game of the season, knocking them out of the promotion spot, it seemed as though the season of the Sussex Saxons was going to be this one.
Enter The Surrey Stingers. Surrey were a team that had high hopes after their relegation a couple of seasons ago, with many thinking that a bounce back was likely for them, though this year they grabbed the bull by its horns and put the Saxons behind the promotion 8-ball with a week six 16-8 victory, although there is another team in this equation.
The Reading Knights find themselves back down in D2 with dreams of heading straight back up, and with a perfect record winning their first 2 games of the season, a showdown with the Surrey Stingers seems like the likely choice to dictate who goes up. Though with Reading only playing the Solent Redhawks, Royal Holloway Bears and Chichester Spitfires as it stands right now, the Surrey Stingers are edging them out to be the favourites.
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