X-Men

In 2009, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of American football in Japan, (and after all, we have, according to the KCFA yearbook "A CHALLENGE STARTS TO THE 100th ANNIVERSARY"!) the post-season schedule formats for the top university and shakai-jin leagues were altered to try to improve things. In the case of the shakai-jin X-League Division I that meant changing the format, dividing the season into two "stages". The First Stage concluded at the end of October.

The top 3 teams of the East, Central, and West divisions then were put into a pool to play each other in a Second Stage. The bottom 3 teams in each division did likewise. The goal was to was to create more balanced games later in the year. This makes more sense to me for several reasons. Perhaps greatest of all was that formerly, the (regular) season was over for most teams early in November. In most parts of Japan September suffers from the oppressive heat of summer giving way to taiphoon season. In Tokyo, some of the best football weather of the year comes in November and December. This gave us more games (and hopefully more evenly-matched games) that could be played and viewed in comfort.

There may have been some question as to whether those 3rd place teams actually belonged this year- they were mostly trounced by the higher placed teams- but this is obviously a work in progress. Each team played two games against their 2nd Stage pool. Then 4 teams were chosen to represent the divisions, along with a wild-card team (this year the Kajima Deers) based on their combined record in the two stages.

Nevertheless, the semi-finals will be played on December 5th (at Nagai)- a rematch of last year's X-Bowl (Kajima versus Panasonic), and December 6th (at Yokohama Stadium), where the Fujitsu Fronteirs will take in the Asahi Beer Silver Stars. Kickoff for both games will be at 14:30.

The winners of those games will meet on Monday evening, December 21st at Tokyo Dome, for the 23rd X-Bowl.

Clash Bowl, Flash Bowl

The 10th annual Clash Bowl to determine Japan's eastern collegiate champions was played on Sunday at Ajinomoto Stadium, and the Hosei Tomahawks dominated the Waseda Big Bears 38-11. Hosei led at halftime 21-0, and went up at one point 38-3, before the Big Bears scored late.

The Tomahawks will face Kansai University, winners of the Flash Bowl- the champions of western Japan. The Kaisers- this year's surprise winners of the Kansai league- defeated Meijou of Nagoya (the winner of the Tokai region and subsequent playoff) 42-6 today to become the Western Champion.

The two teams will meet on December 13th in Osaka at the Koshien Bowl to determine a truly national collegiate champion for Japan. Previous Koshien bowls were in the form of an invitational, with the Kansai league champ playing the winner from the Kanto league. But beginning this year, a playoff system was enacted to involve the other geographical areas of Japan, including Tohoku and Hokkaido in the east; and Kyushu, Hokoriku, Choshikoku, and Tokai in the west.

The winner of the Koshien Bowl will then face the top shakaijin team from the X-League on January 3rd, in the Rice Bowl.

November 28th @ Aminovital

Late November means the end of the regular season. Normally, it should mean some of the best games of the year, as games are seeded (based on the previous year's standings), meaning that we will see #1 vs #2, #3 vs #4, and so on in the last game.

While none of the games on Saturday turned out to be close, the final games are important, as the top two finishers in each Division II block will play the bottom two teams in their respective Division I blocks with a chance to move up and take their place.

While KCFA Division II B block teams were squaring off in Kawasaki, the top 6 teams of A block met at Aminovital.

In both divisions, the top ranked teams (Komazawa in A, Kanagawa in B) repeated as champions, with the #3 and #5 teams filling in the next spots.

In B block, Kanagawa finshed their regular season by shutting out Tokyo Gakuin 21-0, and will face the Teikyo Assasins on December 20th. 3rd seed Aoyama Gakuin, whose only loss was a forfeit to Kanagawa on November 14th, defeated the Tsukuba Excaliburs 42-17. They will face the Senshu Green Machine on the replacement/relegation/up-down game.

Meanwhile, in A Block the Obirin (count 'em) Three Nails Crown (4-2-1) scored 21 unanswered points in the 2nd half to defeat the Komazawa Blue Tide 21-6, but Komazawa (5-2) had already clinched the division title, and will play Yokohama Kokuritsu to try to reach the first division. In the middle game, the T.I.T. Buffaloes (5-2) dominated the Self Defense Force Academy Cadets (1-5-1) who dropped to 7th place, 31-0. DT/P/K Daisuke Izumihara continued to impress with booming kicks and a long FG for the Buffaloes, and sophomore QB Tatsuya Tokunaga had an effective day passing, and senior QB Mamoru Saitoh doubled as TB. The Buffaloes' final score came as the result of a Saitoh to Tokunaga throwback pass for a touchdown.

Unfortunately for them, Buffaloes will not make it to the playoff games on December 19th, as the surprising 5th seed Tokyo City U. Helios (5-2) defeated winless Utsunomiya by a 35-6 score. The Helios are scheduled to face Ichinohashi U. for their Division I spot.

Kansai Clash

Fabulous football weekend in Kansai. High school, college, and shakaijin games, and a nice trip to practice and the impressive facilities at Ritsumeikan, including their amazing weight room.

Much more intense, passionate vibe around football down there.

Will flesh out more details later!

New Kansai Champion!

The feel-good story for the 2009 football season has to be the triumph of the Kansai Unversity Kaisers. The Kaisers closed out their season on Saturday, defeating Konan 44-7 before a large crowd of their fans at suburban Kobe's Oji Stadium, to go a perfect 7-0 and win the Kansai League for the first time in 61 years.

The star QB of their 1948 team was Heian Hazama, now the honorary Chairman of the American Football Association's Western Conference, who was positively beaming after the game.

Kansai had finished the 2008 season in 5th place. They shocked the Kansai football world earlier in the season by knocking off perennial powers Ritsumeikan and Kansai Gakuin, by 14-7 and 17-13 scores, respectively.


Much of the credit is given to their head coach an alumnus of former power Kyoto University, who has overseen upgrading of the facilities and the program.