Subscribe

Stars and StripesPacific edition, Sunday, July 20, 2008

Yet another U.S. Forces Japan-American Football League game fell by the wayside, when transportation problems kept defending champion Yokosuka from traveling to Misawa for its scheduled game Saturday.

Flight arrangements to take the Seahawks to Misawa and return them on Sunday fell through, and Yokosuka wasn’t able to arrange ground transportation in time, team and league officials said.

It’s the third time in four weeks that a USFJ-AFL contest was postponed, due to either transportation or duty commitments or both.

League commissioner Kyle Rhodus said he’s considering ramping down the schedule from a triple round to a double round. A new schedule is due out Monday, he said.

"That’s probably what it will be like," Rhodus said of reducing the schedule from three to two head-to-head meetings between each team.

Having teams play each other three times would have been "nice to have," Rhodus said, but he "definitely" wants each team to play each other twice.

Still remaining on the regular-season schedule are Misawa vs. Yokota at Yokosuka on July 26, Yokota at Misawa on Aug. 2, Yokosuka at Misawa on Aug. 9 and Yokota at Yokosuka on Aug. 16.

Rhodus said the last three on the schedule are "must-play games" to determine seeding for the stepladder playoffs starting Aug. 23.

The No. 2 seed hosts No. 3 that day, with the regular-season champion hosting the Aug. 23 winner in the Torii Bowl on Aug. 30.

Sign Up for Daily Headlines

Sign up to receive a daily email of today's top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets from around the world.

Sign Up Now