Europe’s Big6 Announces 2016 Teams

| American Football | 11/04/2015

For the third year in a row the Big6 tournament will pit some of the top teams in Europe against each other over a six-week round robin format with a Eurobowl final in June or July.

Europe’s marquee invitational club tournament features six of Europe’s top American football teams. Preliminary rounds are planned to start with matches in April and May of 2016.

The defending Eurobowl champion and German champions, the New Yorker Lions from Braunschweig, will join the Vienna Vikings and Big6 newcomers Aix-en-Provence Argonautes in Group A. Austria’s 2015 national champion, the Swarco Raiders of Tirol, will compete in Group B with German runners-up Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns and the Berlin Adler for a trip to the 2016 Eurobowl.

The participants for 2016 in detail:

Group A

New Yorker Lions: defending and ten time German national champion from Braunschweig, Eurobowl champion of last year, won a total of three Eurobowls in 1999, 2003 and 2015

Vienna Vikings: five time Eurobowl champion (2004 to 2007 2013), 13-time Austrian national champions (record), most recently 2012-2014 in three consecutive years

Aix-en-Provence Argonautes: French club with a rich tradition, and eight-time national champion in France, in 2016 will celebrate the 25th anniversary of first participation in an European competition in 1991, Eurobowl finalist of 1996

Group B

Swarco Raiders: Reigning and four-time Austrian champion from Innsbruck, Austria. Three-time Eurobowl winner (most recently in 2008, 2009 and 2011).

Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns: 2015 German runners-up and 2015 Eurobowl finalist, two-time German national champion. Have won the GFL South for five straight years and reached the German Bowl four times in that stretch.

Berlin Adler: Six-time German national champions, and two-time Eurobowl winners in 2010 and 2014. Winners of the first inaugural Big6 Eurobowl in 2014.

With the groups now set the preliminary rounds are planned to start with matches in April and May of 2016. Early rounds will take place:

Week 1: April 9-10, 2016
Week 2: April 23-24, 2016
Week 3: May 7-8, 2016

Fixtures are still to be set, each team plays one home and one road game.

The Big6 was launched in 2014 on the initiative of some of the top European American football clubs with the support of the national associations. The cooperation stretches beyond the playing field and the battle for Eurobowl, traditionally Europe’s most prestigious trophy in club American football.

John McKeon is a former professional and collegiate American Football player and coach now living and working in New York. His goal is to spread news, information, and opinion on the global growth of the sport he loves.