Avengers Fall to No. 4 Seeding for the Playoffs

A day after losing their chance to be the top-seeded team in the Arena Football League playoffs, the Avengers fell to the fourth spot as the regular season concluded Sunday.

Defending ArenaBowl champion San Jose (12-4), which defeated the Avengers on Saturday night, is the top-seeded team. Tampa Bay (12-4), a 42-38 winner Sunday over Georgia, is second. Orlando (12-4) is third.

The top four teams have byes this week and will play host to quarterfinal games May 31 or June 1.

The Avengers (11-5) will play June 1 at Staples Center, probably against fifth-seeded Dallas (10-6), which plays 12th-seeded Georgia (8-8) this week. Barring upsets of the top three teams, the Avengers would probably be on the road for the semifinals and ArenaBowl if they were to advance that far.

“We would have wished to be one or two, but it’s not that big a deal to be three or four because the playoffs are about matchups,” Avenger Coach Ed Hodgkiss said.

Other wild-card games are No. 11 Las Vegas (8-8) at No. 6 Arizona (10-6), No. 10 Detroit (8-8) at No. 7 Grand Rapids (8-8) and No. 9 Chicago (8-8) at No. 8 New York (8-8).

-- Gary Klein