The 2013
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...
season was the 26th season in the history of the league. The regular season began on March 23, 2013, with a five-game slate, the first of which to kick off being between the
Utah Blaze
The Utah Blaze was a professional arena football team based in Salt Lake City, Utah and competed in the West Division of the Arena Football League. Home games were played at the EnergySolutions Arena. In 2013, the team did not submit proper ...
and the
Pittsburgh Power
The Pittsburgh Power were a professional arena football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team belonged to the East Division (AFL), East Division of the American Conference in the Arena Football League. Founded in 2010, the Power was t ...
, and ended on July 27, 2013, with the Utah Blaze and
Cleveland Gladiators
The Cleveland Gladiators were an arena football team based in Cleveland, Ohio, and members of the Arena Football League (AFL). The Gladiators played their home games at Quicken Loans Arena, which they shared with the Cleveland Cavaliers of the ...
as the last game to kick off. The
Arizona Rattlers
The Arizona Rattlers are a professional indoor American football team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area that competes in the Indoor Football League (IFL). The Rattlers were founded in 1992 as an expansion team in the Arena Football League ...
defeated the
Philadelphia Soul
Philadelphia soul, sometimes called Philly soul, the Philadelphia sound, Phillysound, or The Sound of Philadelphia (TSOP), is a genre of late 1960s–1970s soul music characterized by funk influences and lush string and horn arrangements. The ...
by a 48–39 score in
ArenaBowl XXVI to conclude the league's playoffs.
League business
Teams
The league dropped to 14 teams during the offseason. The
Kansas City Command
The Kansas City Command (formerly the Kansas City Brigade) were a professional arena football team that played in the Arena Football League (AFL). The team was founded before the 2006 season. Former Kansas City Chiefs strong safety Kevin Por ...
ceased operations on August 23, 2012, as well as the
Georgia Force
The Georgia Force was an Arena Football League (AFL) team based in Gwinnett County, Georgia, United States (part of suburban Atlanta) that played in the South Division of the American Conference. The team was owned by Doug MacGregor and Donn ...
on October 14, 2012. The
Milwaukee Mustangs suspended operations for 2013, eyeing a return to play in the 2014 season.
Television
It was announced on November 13, 2012, that the league had reached an agreement with
CBS Sports Network
CBS Sports Network (a.k.a. CBSSN) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by the CBS Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Global. When it launched in 2002 as the National College Sports Network (later College Sports ...
to air 19 regular-season games, as well as two playoff games. The network was scheduled to air the league's "game of the week" each Saturday. The main
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
network was to televise
ArenaBowl XXVI on August 17, 2013.
Regular season standings
Eight teams qualify for the playoffs: four teams from each conference, of which two are division champions and the other two have the best records of the teams remaining.
Key: • •
Tie-breakers
* Cleveland finished in second place in the East Division based on their greater point differential in head-to-head competition with Pittsburgh.
* Jacksonville clinched the American Conference's No. 1 seed based on their win over Philadelphia.
* Orlando clinched the American Conference's No. 3 seed based on a greater conference record than Tampa Bay.
* Chicago clinched the Central Division based on their greater point differential in games against common opponents with San Antonio.
Playoffs
*Note: Due to "arena conflicts," the Chicago Rush did not host the playoff game.
Conference semifinals
Conference championships
ArenaBowl XXVI
All-Arena team
References
{{2013 Arena Football League