We know, we know. It had been a couple of weeks without a Top 20 and there have been some discrepancies.
We intend to fix that.
Only three leagues remain in play. The German regular season finished this past weekend and the playoffs kick off on September 19. In Finland, the Helsinki Roosters won Maple Bowl XXXVI this past weekend and in Denmark, one regular season weekend remains before the playoffs.
The #1 Braunschweig New Yorker Lions finished the German Football League regular season with an 11-1 record and seemed to gain momentum as the late season progressed.
Austria’s Swarco Raiders stay at #2 after an outstanding season.
The Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns remain #3 while the Dresden Monarchs are still a solid #4. The St. Ouen Cougars from France, who have finished their season, stay at #5.
The Allgäu Comets will keep their #6 spot finishing 12-2 in the German South. They have proven themselves to be a top 10 team. The Carlstad Crusaders moved up to #7 after re-asserting themselves in Sweden with their dominating championship run demolishing the Orebro Black Knights 42-17 in the process.
The Kiel Baltic Hurricanes finished the regular season in Germany with three straight wins and move up to #8.
The Stuttgart Scorpions defeated the Saarland Hurricanes in a key matchup in their final regular season game solidifying their third place in the South and move up to #9.
Austrian runner’s up the Vienna Vikings come in a #10 and Czech champions, the Prague Black Panthers are #11.
The first of a new entries is Sweden’s Örebro Black Knights at #12. They upset the Tyreso Royal Crowns in the Swedish playoffs. Although they lost in the final to the Crusaders they deserve to be on this list.
Swiss champions the Calanda Broncos remain at #13.
The playoff upset in Sweden knocked the Tyresö Royal Crowns down a few notches to the #14 spot.
Here’s where the changes really come in and we thank our readers for pointing this out. We totally missed taking into account Serbia’s SBB Vukovi Belgrade victory over the London Blitz in the Champions League tournament. That means that the Serbian winners, the Novi Sad Dukes move up to #15 and Vukovi enters at #17. The Milano Seamen are at #16. Poland’s Gdynia Seahawks come in at #18 while the London Warriors, who won the British championship with seconds to spare over the London Blitz rank at #19. The Helsinki Roosters took another Finnish title on Saturday and round out our list at #20.
Falling out of the Top 20 this week are the Thonon Black Panthers and the London Blitz although they both should be close. A number of teams are also knocking on the door and maybe should be on the list. Denmark’s Triangle Razorbacks are playing well and have been on as well as the Wroclaw Panthers from Poland. We are certain you have plenty of comments and we would love to hear them. If you don’t like our rankings let us know!