Fever's 2013 schedule announced

The Tri-Cities Fever will play six games in 2013 against teams that made the Indoor Football League playoffs last season.

The IFL released the schedule Monday, something in which Fever owner Teri Carr had a hand in drawing up.

“I kind of like the schedule,” said Carr. “It’s not an easy schedule by any means. We’ve got tough competition. But I really like the way it lays out, with the byes in the right place.”

While the league opener is Feb. 15, with Sioux Falls at Green Bay, the Fever’s first game isn’t until March 1, and that’s at the Colorado Ice.

Tri-Cities’ home opener isn’t until March 15 against the Cheyenne Warriors.

Only 10 teams comprise the IFL next season. That’s down from 16 last year and 23 the season before.

“Obviously we would have preferred to maintain some higher number of teams,” Carr said. “But in reality, a lot of teams don’t have the community support to help meet the teams’ budgets.”Some teams from last season moved into other leagues this coming season.

Here is the IFL lineup for 2013:

w Joining the Fever in the Intense Conference will be the Cheyenne Warriors, Colorado Ice, Nebraska Danger and Wyoming Cavalry.

w In the United Conference, it’ll be the Cedar Rapids Titans, Chicago Slaughter, Green Bay Blizzard, Sioux Falls Storm and Texas Revolution.

The Revolution is a new team that takes the place of last season’s Allen Wranglers.

“There was some talk of going without divisions,” said Carr. “But a lot of us thought it would be nice to keep the east-west divisions and have conference championships.”

The Fever will play Wyoming and Cheyenne three times and Nebraska and Colorado twice.

The Fever also will do a home-and-home series with Texas, a road game at Green Bay, and another home game against Sioux Falls on May 25. It’ll be a rematch of the last two IFL championship games.

This story was originally published October 22, 2012 at 11:56 PM with the headline "Fever's 2013 schedule announced."