British Universities American Football League


The British Universities American Football League is an American football league contested by university teams in the United Kingdom as part of the British Universities and Colleges Sport organisation. The league was formed by the British American Football Association, the national governing body of American football in the UK, in 2007 as the successor to the British Collegiate American Football League, after BAFA withdrew its recognition of the British Student American Football Association which ran that league. The BUAFL has been credited with reviving interest in American football in the UK.
From 2008, the BUAFL was officially associated with the National Football League, through its partner organisation NFL UK. In 2012, BUAFL's league and teams were absorbed into BUCS after American football became an official BUCS sport. Over the period 2007 to 2014, the BUAFL grew from 42 teams and 2,460 participants to 75 teams and over 4,100 people involved. It has remained at a similar size since, with 79 teams from 77 institutions and over 4,000 students involved in the 2024–25 season.
BUCS American football is entirely full-contact, but The Times has reported that a flag football competition is planned for the 2025–26 season.

Media

The BUCS American Football leagues are covered by multiple outlets such as American Football International and Sportank. The Latter of which starting live streaming games in January 2022 as well as hosting a weekly show called "The Rundown", predictions and rankings posts. In mid-2025, Christopher "Tebbs" Tebbutt a key media personality in British University American Football, started his own media outlet covering British American Football with the other hosts from "The Rundown" called DepthChartSports. Then forming a partnership with the Brunel University Burners to livestream all of their home games for the 2025/26 season.

League structure

Current structure

In 2024, BUCS introduced a five-team Premier National division above the Premier North and Premier South. Only the national champions, UWE, were promoted from the Premier South with the other four teams being the four that qualified for the post-season from the Premier North. There was no relegation from either regional premier league after the 2023–24 season. The reorganisation retained six regional Tier 1 divisions and six regional Tier 2 divisions. The Tier 1 divisions for 2024/25 were: Midlands and Yorkshire, Northern, Scottish, South Eastern, South Western, and Southern, and the Tier 2 divisions were Midlands, North Eastern, North Western, South Eastern, South Western, and Southern.

Playoffs

Premier National and Premier North & South

Playoffs were also changed for the 2024–25 season. The number of teams and qualification varied between tiers, with qualification being determined by regular season results. In the Premier National Division, the top 4 teams would enter into a seeded playoff for the National Championship. At the Premier North/South level, the top 4 teams from each of the two divisions would qualify for the National Vase. The top two teams within each division would also receive home-field advantages in the playoffs. The winner of the National Vase would play the 5th placed team from Premier National, with the winner playing in Premier National the following season.

Tier 1 and 2 playoffs

The last placed teams in Premier North and Premier South are automatically relegated to the divisions below. Promotion from Tier 1 divisions was the same for both north and south teams who would compete in the National Trophy. From each of the three southern and three northern divisions, the top two ranked teams would qualify, with the two best third-placed teams also qualifying. This makes eight teams from the south and eight teams from the north. The winners from the northern and southern halves of the playoff earn promotion to the corresponding Premier North or South division for the following season, regardless of which of them wins the National Trophy.
Tier 2 has a similar play-off qualification process to Tier 1 with the top two teams from each of the three northern and southern divisions qualifying automatically. The two best third-placed teams also qualify for their respective playoffs. In the south, the eight qualified teams compete for the Southern Conference Cup whilst the teams in the north play for the Northern Conference Cup. At this level there is no competition between conferences. Promotion between Tier 1 and Tier 2 is decided on regular season standings, as the six divisional winners from Tier 2 replace the last placed teams from each of the six Tier 1 divisions.

2024/25

The teams allocated to the premier divisions at the start of the 2024–2025 season were:

2016–2023 structure

A revised structure was announced by BUCS on 26 August 2016. This consisted of two Premier divisions, six regional Tier 1 divisions and six regional Tier 2 divisions. This differed from the standard BUCS structure of five geographical regions below Premier level. The Premier and Tier 1 divisions were considered to be of "high performance" by the BAFA and BUCS. For the 2023–2024 season, the Tier 1 regional divisions were Scottish, Northern, Midlands, Southern, South Western, and South Eastern, while the Tier 2 regional divisions were Northern A, Northern B, Midlands, Southern, South Western, and South Eastern.
Over the course of the regular season, each team in the Premier and Tier 1 played between eight regular season games. Each team played everyone in their division twice; once home and once away. For the 2016/17 season, Tier 2 was broken down into six conferences, five of seven teams and one of eight; teams in Tier 2 playee a six-game season, playing each other only once.

Earlier structures

The first two full seasons of BUCS American Football preserved the single tier, eight conference structure inherited from BUAFL. In 2014–15, this was changed to a two tier system with the formation of two Premier divisions, each of five teams. The eight regional conferences, slightly reorganised to contain 8 or 9 teams each, became the second tier. At the same time the Championship was reduced to the top two teams from each Premier division and the Challenge trophy was replaced with cup competitions for North and South Tier 1 divisional winners, with the winners being promoted to the appropriate Premier division.
For the 2015–16 season, the league was split in three tiers. The premier remained organised into North and South, although the top four in each division now entered the Championship playoff, with the fifth being relegated. The second tier contained 6 geographic division, three Northern and three Southern. The Trophy playoffs took the top two from each division plus the top two remaining teams with the best record from the northern and southern regions, the playoffs were structured with a "northern semi-final" and a "southern semi-final", with the semi-final winners promoted to the respective Premier division regardless of the result in the final. The third tier was organised into 8 divisions, four Northern and four Southern. The major change for the 2016–17 season was the reduction to six divisions in the third tier, although not fully matching the geographical regions in the second tier.

League results

2024-25 season results

All match results and playoff brackets can be found on the BUCS American football website.
Purple indicates playoff qualification.
C = national champions.
O = promotion playoff winners: SGS Pride won the National Vase but conceded the promotion playoff game, thus Leeds Beckett retained Premier National status.
C = National Vase champions. R = relegated to tier 1

Tier 1 and below

National Trophy
'''Conference finals and National Trophy final'''
Tier 2 - Southern and Northern conference cups
Only the best two out of three third-placed teams qualify.
Divisional winners promoted to tier 1 for the following season.

2023-24 regular season standings

Championship qualification is shaded in green – there was no relegation in this season due to the league reorganisation; position in the Championship bracket is based on final positions in the two divisions. League position is based on number of points scored, with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and 0 points for a loss. Team names shaded in blue indicate promotion to the Premier National.



2022-23 regular season standings

Championship qualification is shaded in green, and relegation is shaded in red; position in the Championship bracket is based on final positions in the two divisions. League position is based on number of points scored, with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and 0 points for a loss


Pirates relegated to South East division after losing in the first round of the playoffs; Cobras remained in Premier South.

2021-22 regular season standings

Championship qualification is shaded in green, and relegation is shaded in red; position in the Championship bracket is based on final positions in the two divisions. League position is based on number of points scored, with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and 0 points for a loss



2019-20 regular season standings

The 2019–20 regular season was completed prior to the suspension of university sports due to COVID-19, although only the first-round matches of the post-season were played and thus no overall champion was named.
Championship qualification is shaded in green, and relegation is shaded in red; position in the Championship bracket is based on final positions in the two divisions. League position is based on number of points scored, with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and 0 points for a loss



2018-19 regular season standings

Championship qualification is shaded in green, and relegation is shaded in red; position in the Championship bracket is based on final positions in the two divisions. League position is based on number of points scored, with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and 0 points for a loss



2017–18 final standings

Championship qualification is shaded in green, and relegation is shaded in red; position in the Championship bracket is based on final positions in the two divisions. League position is based on number of points scored, with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and 0 points for a loss



2016–17 final standings

Championship qualification is shaded in green, and relegation is shaded in red; position in the Championship bracket is based on final positions in the two divisions. League position is based on number of points scored, with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and 0 points for a loss



2015–16 final standings

Championship qualification is shaded in green, and relegation is shaded in red; position in the Championship bracket is based on final positions in the two divisions. League position is based on number of points scored, with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and 0 points for a loss



2014–15 final standings

Championship qualification is shaded in green, and relegation is shaded in red; position in the Championship bracket is based on final positions in the two divisions. League position is based on number of points scored, with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and 0 points for a loss



2013–14 final standings

Championship qualification is shaded in green, and trophy qualification is shaded in orange. Seeding is based on number of points scored, with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a tie and 0 points for a loss



2012–13 final standings

Championship qualification is shaded in green, and trophy qualification is shaded in orange. Seeding is based on number of points scored, with 1 point for a win, 0 points for a tie and 0 points for a loss



National Championship

The collapse of the BCAFL, due to the British American Football Association withdrawing recognition, created a void in the university sport structure. In response, the British Universities American Football League was founded in 2007. This new league established direct oversight from BAFA, ensuring the sport's longevity. Crucially, the BUAFL maintained the tradition of its predecessor by having the same teams that had participated in the former BCAFL compete for the newly titled BUAFL National Championship. This continuity was vital in preserving the competitive spirit and national scope of the event.
While the new BUAFL title replaced the College Bowl as the official national final, the twenty-one College Bowl titles won between 1987 and 2007 remain widely recognized as massive achievements. For the champion teams, these titles represent the foundational history of the sport in the UK university system. The league itself honors this legacy; the College Bowl champions are still celebrated, and their success is a key part of the official historical records of the competition, providing a direct lineage to the current BUAFL/BUCS structure.
The BUAFL’s subsequent association with NFL UK from 2008 solidified the sport's national presence, leading to growth from 42 teams in 2007 to 75 teams by 2014.

List of National Champions by season

* ''shared/co-champions''

List of National Champions by titles won

* ''shared/co-champions
TeamChampionsRunners-up

Birmingham Lions		 2008–09, 2009–10, 2012–13, 2015–16) 2010–11, 2011–12, 2013–14)
Hertfordshire Hurricanes5 4
UWE Bullets5
Stirling Clansmen4
Southampton Stags4
Hull Sharks4
Loughborough Students
fmr. Loughborough Aces		3 3

Teesside Cougars
fmr. Teesside Demons		2 2

Leeds Gryphons
fmr. Leeds Celtics		1 2

Glasgow Tigers		1 2

Cardiff Cobras		1 2

Durham Saints		1 2

Oxford Lancers
fmr. Oxford Cavaliers		1 1

Portsmouth Destroyers		1

Leeds Beckett Carnegie		1

Nottingham Gold
fmr. Nottingham Outlaws		3

Leicester Longhorns
fmr. Leicester Lemmings/
Lightning''		2

Staffordshire Stallions		2

Tarannau Aberystwyth		1

Cambridge Pythons		1

Derby Braves		1

UEA Pirates		1

Challenge trophy, divisional cups, and national trophy

The challenge trophy was replaced by the two divisional cups for the transitional 2014–15 season, which were replaced in turn by the national trophy from the 2015–16 season.

Varsity Bowl

The Varsity Bowl is the annual game between the Oxford Lancers and the Cambridge Pythons, a significant fixture in the UK university sports calendar, pitting the two historic rivals against each other for bragging rights in the sport, played typically in Trinity Term.
It's a continuation of the tradition of varsity contests between Oxford and Cambridge, similar to their famous Boat Race.
The first 5 Varsity Bowls were held between the Oxford Cavaliers and the Cambridge Pythons.
There were no Varsity Bowls held between 1996-2010 because the Oxford Cavaliers became a mixed Oxford University/Oxford Brookes team and they would not have followed Oxbridge Varsity rules.
Since the re-founding of American football at Oxford University, the Varsity Bowl now exists as a contest between the Oxford Lancers and the Cambridge Pythons, recommencing in 2012.
At Varsity Bowl VI, the game was tied and both teams declared co-champions after 3OT.
At Varsity Bowl XI, the game was eventually won by the Cambridge Pythons and declared champions after 2OT.
* Varsity Bowl Champions in '''bold'''

Cavalier Cup

The Cavalier Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the American Football fixtures between teams of the University of Oxford and the Oxford Brookes University in the BUAFL, played annually.
The match serves as a high-stakes showdown between the Oxford Lancers and the Oxford Brookes Panthers, two teams that share a single lineage. Until 2011, they competed as a unified program known as the Oxford Cavaliers. This original squad reached the pinnacle of the sport during the 2001–02 season, when they successfully captured the National Championship, establishing a legacy of excellence that both modern teams still strive to uphold.
​Since their split in 2011, the Lancers and Panthers have met on the field every year starting in the 2012/13 season. This annual tradition was established not just for competition, but as a formal way to honor the history of the Oxford Cavaliers. By facing off in the Cavalier Cup, both universities keep the memory of their shared championship roots alive for new generations of players and fans.
The Cavalier Cup is fought whenever the two teams play and is sometimes played twice in a season if both teams are playing in same BUAFL conference.
RESULTS MISSING UP TO...
25/26
Lancers 7 - 36 Panthers

Most valuable player awards

Most valuable player awards have been given out sporadically at best. There has been no central committee to give MVP awards since at least the 2015–2016 season.
SeasonLeague MVPOffensive MVPDefensive MVP
2008–2009Tristan Varney Ed Butcher
2009–2010David Saul Tristan Varney Ed Butcher
2010–2011Adam Hope Russ Waddell
2011–2012Joe Thompson
2012–2013Dan Conroy