December 29 -- The 2011 calendar year is winding down, which means that Capital Area Team Sports ("CATS") plans for GRIDIRON AMERICA continue to ramp up.  Preparations for our inaugural season, featuring 5-man contact flag football, are entering their final stages with team operators meeting Friday evening in Raleigh, followed by a release of the league's inaugural season schedule on Sunday.

Some details of the schedule can be disclosed however:  teams will participate in preseason games on Sunday, January 8th, with the regular season commencing the following week on Sunday, January 15th.

Each team will play a ten game regular season schedule, after which the league's top two clubs will square off in the inaugural AmeriBowl Championship Game.  Other clubs in GRIDIRON AMERICA's 5-man league will be paired off into secondary bowl games based on their order of finish, providing most if not all teams with a 12th game to wind up their inaugural seasons.

The NCAA-style postseason format is one similar to that employed by CATS for the inaugural season of its Independent Flag Football League back in 2002.  "The objective of the first season is to ensure things operate smoothly and efficiently, and having a complex playoff structure might prove contrary to achieving that goal," explained former CATS President Patrick Weiss, who has been spearheading player recruitment efforts for the league.  "It's just part of our desire to do things right instead of do things big."