X-League

The X-League is a professional American football league in Japan. It was founded in 1971 as the Japan American Football League. It changed its name to the X-league in 1997. There are four divisions (X1, X2, X3, and X4) between which there is promotion and relegation. Teams in the four-tier league are split into east, west, and central divisions. There are two types of teams, one being a company-team which only employees of that particular sponsoring company may participate as a player (known as semi-pro in the United States), and the other classified as a club-team for which anyone can try out.

Game rules are based on those of the NCAA college division in America, with the exception of the length of quarters, which are 12 minutes (the same as high school football) instead of 15. The regular season consists of three stages, namely first stage, second stage and final stage. The Japan X Bowl is played by winners of the final stage. There is a spring tournament as well called the Pearl Bowl which is used by teams to ready themselves and evaluate new players before the fall season.

The Japan national American football team, which has won the first and second editions of the American Football World Cup and was runner-up, finishing second to the American team in the 2007 installment of the tournament, was made up almost entirely of players from this league.

Americans are often recruited to play for x-league team with a strict rule of two per team. Notable players include defensive back Michael Bangel and Nathaniel Johnson. Foreign players can be paid according to the team policies.

2010 X League X1 Teams

Japan X Bowl

Since 1987, Japan X Bowl has decided the X-League championship. Until 2002, it was known as the Tokyo Super Bowl. The winner of this game goes on to the Rice Bowl to face the winner of the Koshien Bowl, the national college championship game.

Winners

Team names

• Silver Star → Asahi Beer Silver Star
• Matsushita Electric Works Impulse → Panasonic Electric Works Impulse
• Kohoku Finies → Sunstar Finies → Kohoku Finies → Finies Football Club → Kobe Finies → SRC Kobe Finies　→ Elecom Kobe Finies
• Recruit Seagulls → Seagulls → Obic Seagulls
• NEC Falcons (dissolved in 1997)
• Renoun Rovers (dissolved in 2003)
• Onward Oaks → Onward Skylarks(Combined with Skylark Skylarks in 2001) → Onward Oaks (dissolved in 2009)→ Sagamihara Rise (Remnants of the Onward Oaks formed a new team called the Sagamihara Rise (same uniforms and colors, although different logo) and played one level down in the X2 league through the 2010 season. They subsequently won the challenge game against the Renesas Hurricanes to move back up to X1 in December of 2010, and will play again in the X1 Central Division for the 2011 season, with the Hurricanes moving down to X2)

References

• X League homepage
• Japan's X-League Runs with the Ball
• X League's Road to the Rice Bowl