Spokane back on top of poll

The always entertaining AFL coaches poll is out for Week 16 and the Spokane Shock climbed back into the top spot. That makes sense, given that the Shock have a 10-game winning streak and the best record in the league by two games. Former No. 1 Tampa Bay dropped to fifth after losing to Jacksonville.

But the poll continues to be a head-scratcher. Spokane received 10 first-place votes and No. 2 Jacksonville three. The other two first-place votes went to No. 5 Tampa Bay and No. 6 Chicago (which lost to one-win Dallas last week).

More below.

From AFL office …

TULSA – Spokane happily slides back into the No. 1 spot after two weeks of sitting in Tampa Bay’s shadow. The Shock continued its impressive win streak with a win at Iowa on the NFL Network. The television spotlight will be on Spokane again this weekend when they take on Chicago at home.

The weekend of upsets started when the Sharks defeated top-ranked Tampa Bay, shooting Jacksonville up three spots to No. 2. The second surprise of the weekend came when the Vigilantes disappointed Chicago, ending Dallas’s ten game losing drought. The agonizing losses for the previous No. 1 and No. 3 teams ended with Tampa Bay falling four spots and Chicago dropping three. Jacksonville and Milwaukee both move up three seeds with their victories.

Arizona and Tulsa both remain unchanged from last week despite both clinching playoff seats. The two teams will play each other in Tulsa this weekend with Arizona leading the series 1-0.

WEEK 16 RK	Team (1st place votes)	W-L	Pts	Last Week
1	Spokane Shock (10)	12-2	133	2
2	Jacksonville Sharks (3)	10-4	118	5
3	Milwaukee Iron	9-5	99	6
4	Arizona Rattlers	9-5	97	4
5	Tampa Bay Storm (1)	10-4	93	1
6	Chicago Rush (1)	10-5	90	3
7	Tulsa Talons	9-5	75	7
8	Orlando Predators	6-8	56	9
9	Oklahoma City	6-8	47	8
10	Alabama Vipers	6-8	45	10
11	Cleveland Gladiators	7-8	34	11
12	Iowa Barnstormers	6-8	31	12
13	Bossier-Shreveport BW	3-11	24	13
14	Dallas Vigilantes	2-12	20	14
14	Utah Blaze	1-13	15	14