The British Universities American Football League (BUAFL) is an American football league contested by university teams in the United Kingdom as part of the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) organisation. The league was formed by the British American Football Association (BAFA), the national governing body of American football in the UK, in 2007 as the successor to the British Collegiate American Football League, after BAFA withdrew its recognition of the British Student American Football Association which ran that league. The BUAFL has been credited with reviving interest in American football in the UK.
From 2008, the BUAFL was officially associated with the National Football League (NFL), through its partner organisation NFL UK. In 2012, BUAFL's league and teams were absorbed into BUCS after American football became an official BUCS sport. Over the period 2007 to 2014, the BUAFL grew from 42 teams and 2,460 participants to 75 teams and over 4,100 people involved. It has remained at a similar size since, with 79 teams from 77 institutions and over 4,000 students involved in the 2024–25 season.
BUCS American football is entirely full-contact, but The Times has reported that a flag football competition is planned for the 2025–26 season.
Media
The BUCS American Football leagues are covered by multiple outlets such as American Football International and Sportank. The Latter of which starting live streaming games in January 2022 as well as hosting a weekly show called "The Rundown", predictions and rankings posts. In mid-2025, Christopher "Tebbs" Tebbutt a key media personality in British University American Football, started his own media outlet covering British American Football with the other hosts from "The Rundown" called DepthChartSports. Then forming a partnership with the Brunel University Burners to livestream all of their home games for the 2025/26 season.
Teams
+ List of BUAFL teamsUniversityTeamCityCountryJoined LeagueDivision(Conference) Aberdeen Bulls Aberdeen 2015 III(1 Scottish) Aberystwyth Tarannau Aberystwyth 1992 IV(2 South Western) ARU Siege Cambridge 2011 IV(2 Midlands) Bath Bath 1992 III(1 South Western) Bath Spa Bath 2007 IV(2 South Western) Birmingham Birmingham 1989 III(1 Southern) Bournemouth Bournemouth 2014 III(1 South Western) Brighton Brighton 2003 III(1 South Eastern) Bristol Bristol 2007 III(1 South Western) Brunel London 2010 II(Premier South) Cambridge Cambridge 1990 IV(2 Midlands) Cardiff Cardiff 1987 II(Premier South) Chichester Chichester 2013 IV(2 Southern) Coventry Coventry 2010 IV(2 Midlands) CSGU London 2013 IV(2 South Eastern) Derby Derby 1996 III(1 Midlands & Yorkshire) DMU Leicester 2011 IV(2 Midlands) Durham Durham 2007 I(National) Edge Hill Ormskirk 2007 III(1 Northern) Edinburgh Edinburgh 2009 III(1 Scottish) Edinburgh Napier Edinburgh 2004 III(1 Scottish) Essex Colchester 2001 IV(1 South Eastern) Exeter Exeter 2009 II(Premier South) Glasgow Glasgow 1986 III(1 Scottish)
League structure
Current structure
In 2024, BUCS introduced a five-team Premier National division above the Premier North and Premier South. Only the national champions, UWE, were promoted from the Premier South with the other four teams being the four that qualified for the post-season from the Premier North. There was no relegation from either regional premier league after the 2023–24 season. The reorganisation retained six regional Tier 1 divisions and six (different) regional Tier 2 divisions. The Tier 1 divisions for 2024/25 were: Midlands and Yorkshire, Northern, Scottish, South Eastern, South Western, and Southern, and the Tier 2 divisions were Midlands, North Eastern, North Western, South Eastern, South Western, and Southern.
Playoffs
Premier National and Premier North & South Playoffs were also changed for the 2024–25 season. The number of teams and qualification varied between tiers, with qualification being determined by regular season results. In the Premier National Division, the top 4 teams would enter into a seeded playoff for the National Championship. At the Premier North/South level, the top 4 teams from each of the two divisions would qualify for the National Vase. The top two teams within each division would also receive home-field advantages in the playoffs. The winner of the National Vase would play the 5th (last) placed team from Premier National, with the winner playing in Premier National the following season.
Tier 1 and 2 playoffs The last placed teams in Premier North and Premier South are automatically relegated to the divisions below. Promotion from Tier 1 divisions was the same for both north and south teams who would compete in the National Trophy (the third level/tier of playoff competition). From each of the three southern and three northern divisions, the top two ranked teams would qualify, with the two best third-placed teams also qualifying. This makes eight teams from the south and eight teams from the north. The winners from the northern and southern halves of the playoff (i.e., both finalists) earn promotion to the corresponding Premier North or South division for the following season, regardless of which of them wins the National Trophy.
Tier 2 has a similar play-off qualification process to Tier 1 with the top two teams from each of the three northern and southern divisions qualifying automatically. The two best third-placed teams also qualify for their respective playoffs. In the south, the eight qualified teams compete for the Southern Conference Cup whilst the teams in the north play for the Northern Conference Cup. At this level there is no competition between conferences. Promotion between Tier 1 and Tier 2 is decided on regular season standings, as the six divisional winners from Tier 2 replace the last placed teams from each of the six Tier 1 divisions.
2024/25 The teams allocated to the premier divisions at the start of the 2024–2025 season were:
Premier divisions
NationalDurham Saints Leeds Beckett Carnegie Loughborough Students Nottingham Gold UWE Bullets North South Leeds Gryphons Liverpool Raptors Newcastle Raiders NTU Renegades Warwick WolvesBirmingham Lions Cardiff Cobras Exeter Demons Portsmouth Destroyers SGS Pride
Tier 1 divisions Scottish Northern Midlands and YorkshireAberdeen Bulls Edinburgh Mavericks Edinburgh Napier Knights Glasgow Tigers Heriot-Watt Wolverines Stirling ClansmenLiverpool John Moores Fury Manchester Tyrants MMU Eagles Northumbria Mustangs Lancashire RamsCoventry Jets Hull Sharks Leicester Longhorns Nottingham Green Sheffield Hallam Warriors Southern South East South WestBrighton Panthers Brunel Burners Hertfordshire Hurricanes Oxford Lancers Reading KnightsEssex Blades Kent Falcons King's College Regents UCL Emperors UEA PiratesBath Killer Bees Bournemouth Bobcats Bristol Barracuda Southampton Stags Swansea Titans
Tier 2 Divisions North Western North Eastern Midlands Edge Hill Vikings Keele Crusaders Lancaster Bombers Staffordshire StallionsBradford Bears Sheffield Sabres Sunderland Spartans York Centurions YSJ Jaguars ARU Siege Cambridge Pythons Derby Braves DMU Lions Lincoln Colonials Southern South Western South Eastern Chichester Spitfires OBU Panthers Royal Holloway Bears Solent Redhawks Surrey Stingers Sussex SaxonsBath Spa Bulldogs Gloucester Gladiators Plymouth Blitz Tarannau Aberystwyth UWE Bullets 2's Worcester RoyalsCanterbury Chargers City Wolfpack Greenwich Mariners Imperial Immortals Kingston Cougars QMUL Vipers
2016–2023 structure
A revised structure was announced by BUCS on 26 August 2016. This consisted of two Premier divisions, six regional Tier 1 divisions and six regional Tier 2 divisions. This differed from the standard BUCS structure of five geographical regions below Premier level. The Premier and Tier 1 divisions were considered to be of "high performance" by the BAFA and BUCS. For the 2023–2024 season, the Tier 1 regional divisions were Scottish, Northern, Midlands, Southern, South Western, and South Eastern, while the Tier 2 regional divisions were Northern A, Northern B, Midlands, Southern, South Western, and South Eastern.
Over the course of the regular season, each team in the Premier and Tier 1 played between eight regular season games. Each team played everyone in their division twice; once home and once away. For the 2016/17 season, Tier 2 was broken down into six conferences, five of seven teams and one (South East) of eight; teams in Tier 2 playee a six-game season (seven in the South East division), playing each other only once.
Earlier structures
The first two full seasons of BUCS American Football preserved the single tier, eight conference structure inherited from BUAFL. In 2014–15, this was changed to a two tier system with the formation of two Premier divisions (North and South), each of five teams. The eight regional conferences, slightly reorganised (in particular, the small Scottish conference became the more balanced Borders conference, including teams from northern England) to contain 8 or 9 teams each, became the second tier. At the same time the Championship was reduced to the top two teams from each Premier division and the Challenge trophy was replaced with cup competitions for North and South Tier 1 divisional winners, with the winners being promoted to the appropriate Premier division.
For the 2015–16 season, the league was split in three tiers. The premier remained organised into North and South, although the top four (of five) in each division now entered the Championship playoff, with the fifth being relegated. The second tier contained 6 geographic division, three Northern (Scottish North, Northern and Midlands) and three Southern (Western, South and Southeastern). The Trophy playoffs took the top two from each division plus the top two remaining teams with the best record from the northern and southern regions, the playoffs were structured with a "northern semi-final" and a "southern semi-final", with the semi-final winners promoted to the respective Premier division regardless of the result in the final. The third tier was organised into 8 divisions, four Northern (Scottish North, Northern, Midlands and North Midlands) and four Southern (Western, South, Southeastern and London). The major change for the 2016–17 season was the reduction to six divisions (and a consequent increase in the number of teams per division) in the third tier (Tier 2), although not fully matching the geographical regions in the second tier (Tier 1).
League results
2024-25 season results All match results and playoff brackets can be found on the BUCS American football website.
Purple indicates playoff qualification. Premier NationalTeam UWE Bullets (C)7100.8754666314Nottingham Gold 6200.7503089012Durham Saints5300.62522220010Loughborough Students2600.2501132614Leeds Beckett Carnegie (O)0800.000393420 C = national champions.
O = promotion playoff winners: SGS Pride won the National Vase but conceded the promotion playoff game, thus Leeds Beckett retained Premier National status.
Premier NorthTeam Warwick Wolves7100.8752168014Leeds Gryphons 6200.75028410612NTU Renegades 4400.5001711358Newcastle Raiders2600.250602684Liverpool (R)1700.125471890 Premier SouthTeam SGS Pride (C)8001.0002412816Portsmouth Destroyers 5300.62517912610Exeter Demons 4400.5001222048Cardiff Cobras2600.2501342064Birmingham Open (R)1700.125892010 C = National Vase champions. R = relegated to tier 1
Tier 1 and below
National Trophy +First RoundHome team (Seed)ScoreAway team (Seed)Southern results: Bournemouth (1)17-0Bath (8)Brunel (2)42-0UEA (7)KCL (3)0-20Bristol (6)Kent (4)3-0Hertfordshire (5)Northern results:Edinburgh Napier (1)27-0Edinburgh (8)Northumbria (2)28-6Leicester (7)Nottingham Green (3)6-23Sheffield Hallam (6)UCLAN (4)10-13Stirling (5)