5. The league has a rich and fascinating history, and our perspectives on it differ from person to person. In 600 words or more, describe any significant moment in ISFL or DSFL history, whether you were around for it or not. Describe the context, the significant members, and the events. What exactly made this event so famous (or infamous) and why does it deserve to be remembered? Events might include championship wins, the inducting of players to the hall of fame, or even a league scandal.
For this Ultimus Week, I think it’s time I went way back, to the very beginning and more specifically the first expansion for the league. There were two teams added at this time, the first one being the Philadelphia Liberty and the second one being the Las Vegas Legion, who are now the New Orleans Second Line. This was my first season in the league, and I was drafted by the Liberty, so I have a lot of experience with the expansion team that would go on to win it all in season 7. For this Ultimus Week post, what better to do than reminisce on that time and just think back on both expansion teams and how it formed the future.
First and foremost, the two-team expansion became the norm because of this, every expansion after has been 2 teams, this is good information because WSBL expanded and they expanded by 6 teams, the smaller roster sizes of the sport play a part in this change as well. For ISFL, it was determined due to roster size to expand by two teams first, every team needs to be able to fill out their roster, not just the expansion teams, and unlike a sport like basketball, necessity indicates 22 spots need to be filled per team, whereas basketball has a much smaller roster and amount of starters. Two team expansion gives the ISFL the ability to gauge what is going on with the league and was the perfect size for the young football league trying to figure out their path. I am not saying there is anything bad with WSBL’s expansion size, because it fits for what they are doing and what they need, simply providing a reference.
The Legion went for higher value players who may have been IA or issues to their prior teams, players who would have a new shot at the league on a new team and would mortgage everything on getting as much competition ready talent as possible. They would trade draft picks, opting to build the team with those veteran season 1 players, and ultimately this strategy would fail as they struggled to find their footing after some weaker ISFL draft classes after the season 3 draft class. The Legion strategy was focused on competing early and may have compromised the future of their team because of it.
The Liberty on the other hand focused on the season 2 talent, trading for picks and using the expansion draft to supplement their plan, while avoiding the competitive talent that could have been available in favor of cultivating talent. This strategy honestly struggled to be successful but ultimately was. We were a playoff contender for years but that struggle leads to inactivity, you won’t hit on every draft pick but as the seasons went on the team dwindled in activity and was looking like it would never win the title we had dreamed of. We fought and fought but the dominance of the Outlaws and Otters made it almost impossible to breakthrough and win the Ultimus title, even if we could make it due to a conference that was closer in terms of team ability.
This early expansion saw a lot of players enter the league, and saw two new teams because of it, but later drafts and lower recruitment numbers saw the teams starting to lose more than they were gaining, and there was even a draft that had no more than 5 actives and 20 total prospects (IIRC but not sure the official numbers), this put a strain on the league as a whole and on teams as they saw others doing well with no chance of winning. The ISFL may not have been ready for expansion, especially with the recruiting failures, but they needed more teams to fill the roster spots and provided a good blueprint for expansion in the ISFL. (648 Words)
For this Ultimus Week, I think it’s time I went way back, to the very beginning and more specifically the first expansion for the league. There were two teams added at this time, the first one being the Philadelphia Liberty and the second one being the Las Vegas Legion, who are now the New Orleans Second Line. This was my first season in the league, and I was drafted by the Liberty, so I have a lot of experience with the expansion team that would go on to win it all in season 7. For this Ultimus Week post, what better to do than reminisce on that time and just think back on both expansion teams and how it formed the future.
First and foremost, the two-team expansion became the norm because of this, every expansion after has been 2 teams, this is good information because WSBL expanded and they expanded by 6 teams, the smaller roster sizes of the sport play a part in this change as well. For ISFL, it was determined due to roster size to expand by two teams first, every team needs to be able to fill out their roster, not just the expansion teams, and unlike a sport like basketball, necessity indicates 22 spots need to be filled per team, whereas basketball has a much smaller roster and amount of starters. Two team expansion gives the ISFL the ability to gauge what is going on with the league and was the perfect size for the young football league trying to figure out their path. I am not saying there is anything bad with WSBL’s expansion size, because it fits for what they are doing and what they need, simply providing a reference.
The Legion went for higher value players who may have been IA or issues to their prior teams, players who would have a new shot at the league on a new team and would mortgage everything on getting as much competition ready talent as possible. They would trade draft picks, opting to build the team with those veteran season 1 players, and ultimately this strategy would fail as they struggled to find their footing after some weaker ISFL draft classes after the season 3 draft class. The Legion strategy was focused on competing early and may have compromised the future of their team because of it.
The Liberty on the other hand focused on the season 2 talent, trading for picks and using the expansion draft to supplement their plan, while avoiding the competitive talent that could have been available in favor of cultivating talent. This strategy honestly struggled to be successful but ultimately was. We were a playoff contender for years but that struggle leads to inactivity, you won’t hit on every draft pick but as the seasons went on the team dwindled in activity and was looking like it would never win the title we had dreamed of. We fought and fought but the dominance of the Outlaws and Otters made it almost impossible to breakthrough and win the Ultimus title, even if we could make it due to a conference that was closer in terms of team ability.
This early expansion saw a lot of players enter the league, and saw two new teams because of it, but later drafts and lower recruitment numbers saw the teams starting to lose more than they were gaining, and there was even a draft that had no more than 5 actives and 20 total prospects (IIRC but not sure the official numbers), this put a strain on the league as a whole and on teams as they saw others doing well with no chance of winning. The ISFL may not have been ready for expansion, especially with the recruiting failures, but they needed more teams to fill the roster spots and provided a good blueprint for expansion in the ISFL. (648 Words)
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