The Eastern Division Champion Jody's Colossal Waste of Time hosts the Piana Raze in the first of two Championship Week duels preceding next week's Super Bowl IX. Both teams are making their first Championship Week appearance since 2003. Neither franchise made the playoffs last season, making this fight for a Super Bowl berth all the more special.

The Raze are coming off an impressive 51-30 Wild Card victory over Thomas in which halfbacks Tiki Barber and Larry Johnson combined for 30 points. Since Week 9, in fact, Piana is 4-0-1, but all against familiar Western Division foes. The Raze downed the C.W.O.T. 41-35 in a rather uneventful Neutral Site tilt back in Week 7, with that victory being only their third in twelve career meetings with Jody.

Both Piana and Jody were 3-3 when they met in Week 7. Following that loss, the 3-4 C.W.O.T. won five of their last six to wrestle away the Eastern Division championship from Anderson. It is the fourth division title for the C.W.O.T., but the first for a roster that has been nearly completely overhauled in the past two seasons. Carson Palmer – brought over this past offseason in a trade with Thomas – has emerged as the face of the 2006 C.W.O.T.. He is by far the leading scorer on an offense which also features the explosive talents of Antonio Gates, Steven Jackson, and T.J. Houshmandzadeh. Jody also has a stout Panther defense, but it – like a few of the offensive starters – has become mildly inconsistent down the stretch. Jody's last experience in Championship Week was a painful one, being bounced 55-36 in the Vortex by Thomas back in 2003, so the team is certainly hoping to avoid a letdown.

One final splash of intrigue for this interdivisional tilt comes from the 2005 League Draft. Jody, having won Draft Bowl VIII, traded away the rights to the first overall pick to Piana in exchange for Marc Bulger and the Raze's first round/fourth overall pick. Piana drafted Julius Jones at the top of the board, and Jody took Ronnie Brown three spots later. As fate would have it, however, not one these three players will be in the starting lineup for this weekend's game; Bulger's hurt, and both Jones and Brown have been regulated to tiebreaker status. So much for the "big trade."

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The Abstract Machines and the Irwin Hellions began their respective 2005 campaigns against one another at Purgatory Field, and so it seems fitting that one of their seasons will end on the same patch of grass fourteen weeks later. The five-time Kings of the Western Division and reigning Super Bowl champion Hellions are this season's No. 1 seed following a stout 9-3-1 campaign. The fifth-seeded Machines have stormed the playoff party and are coming off an impressive upset of the Anderson Brewmeisters.

The Hellions are inarguably the most successful franchise in the FLF circle: five division titles, three Super Bowl titles, and now seven Championship Week appearances – all records – in only nine seasons of competition. This year's version of the unstoppable machine is being driven by sophomore QB Eli Manning, who assumed the reigns following a season-ending injury to Donovan McNabb. Key players from last year's Super Bowl run – Domanick Davis, Edgerrin James, Andre Johnson, Chad Johnson, and Nate Keading – are all back and helping the Hellions live large.

The Machines have picked themselves back up following a rough encore to last year's Championship Week run. Expecting to compete for a division title, the Machine instead nearly missed the playoffs, but two-straight wins over Anderson have them once again on the Super Bowl's doorstep. The powerful running game of last year is practically gone, but Tom Brady, Marvin Harrison, Anquan Boldin, and newcomer Neil Rackers have kept the Abstracts in the fight.

The Machines and Hellions split their season series, each successfully defending their home soil. Since the league's inception, Irwin is 9-3 against the Machines at the Hellhole. Perhaps even more impressive, the Hellions are 10-2-1 in front of their rabid faithful over the past two seasons. Can the Machines buck history and make it to their second Super Bowl, or will Irwin take care of business and make their fifth trip to the league's title game?

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