Is this Oakland’s year?
April 22, 2026 by Alex Rubin in Preview
Given their historical success, and the steps back taken in Seattle and Colorado, the Salt Lake Shred should feel like this is their division to lose. But, a strong contender building in Oakland may send the Bay Area team back to Championship Weekend for the first time in over a decade. At the top of the division, the battle between Salt Lake and Oakland should be entertaining all season. Not to be missed though, the fight for the last playoff spot between Seattle and Colorado is also worth keeping an eye on. And let’s not count out Oregon – they did take a win off of Seattle last year after all. While perhaps not quite as wild as some West Divisions in previous seasons, this year’s group is full of intrigue and potential.
Salt Lake Shred
For two of the last three seasons, the Salt Lake Shred represented the West Division at Championship Weekend. Even as they endured roster turnover and the rise of other divisional powerhouses, the Shred always seem to find a way to compete. With the Jordan Kerr/Jacob Miller/Yorgason brothers as the core, the Salt Lake area keeps churning out prospects who make a positive difference when they’re on the field. The Pew brothers are both excellent athletes and smart defenders, Alex Forsberg is becoming a key block getter, and a few out-of-town imports like Reed Browning and Carson Armstrong have found places to succeed. There is a lot to like about the Shred.
With challenges coming from a resurgent Oakland team and a Seattle squad not ready to give up on the potential from two seasons ago when they upset the Shred in Salt Lake to make Championship Weekend, the Shred will have to stay ahead of the curve by making smart adjustments and getting the most out of their players. If there is any coaching staff in the league who can do that, it’s Bryce Merrill and company. While Oakland is a trendy pick to represent the division this season at Championship Weekend, they’ll need to go through a resilient and determined Salt Lake team that knows what it takes to succeed in this league and is not ready to give up the division crown. These two teams meet three times in the regular season, so there will be plenty of time to familiarize between a potential playoff matchup.
Key Additions: Porter Stobbe, Carson Armstrong, Joe Merrill (returning), Simon Dastrup (returning)
Key Losses: Will Selfridge, Braden Eberhard, Nate De Morgan
X-Factor: Replacing another star (Will Selfridge this year, Grant Lindsley in 2025) with younger players
Biggest Game: June 19 at Minnesota, a matchup of Championship Weekend hopefuls
Expected Ceiling: earning a win at Championship Weekend
Expected Floor: losing in the West Division title game
Oakland Spiders
The Oakland Spiders have not made Championship Weekend since their last title in 2015, but in the decade since the team has remained competitive and is now aiming not just for a repeat appearance at the final four, but a title. The Spiders are coming close to being an all-in copy of club team San Francisco Revolver. With players like Anton Orme, Kyle Lew, Dylan Villeneuve, and Sean Liston joining the team this year, the overlap between the club and pro teams continues to grow. This is great news for Spiders fans because Revolver won the Club Championships last fall.
Pairing a club title with a pro title the following season is not especially common in the UFA. Only the 2018 New York PoNY/2019 New York Empire were able to do it, and they had less roster overlap than these Spiders do, even with Mac Hecht listed as just a practice player and Michael Ing nowhere near a UFA roster. The 2015 Spiders and 2017 San Francisco Flamethrowers (both with Revolver) and the 2021 Carolina Flyers (with Raleigh Ring of Fire) won both pro and club titles in the same calendar year.
Just because this accomplishment is not common does not make it impossible. The Spiders have everything they need not only to win the West Division this year, but also to take on the best of the league at Championship Weekend should they get there. Consider last year’s Boston Glory; like the Spiders they spent the previous few seasons flashing potential but never earning their chance to prove it at Championship Weekend…until they did, and then they won the whole thing. A similar outcome is absolutely possible for this season’s Oakland team.
Key Additions: Anton Orme, Kyle Lew (returning), Itay Chang, Dylan Villeneuve, Max Zwerin, Chander Boyd-Fliegel, Sean Liston, Tony Goss, James Whealan
Key Losses: Eli Kerns, Matthew Crawford, Liam Jay
X-Factor: Playoff performance
Biggest Game: June 12 vs Minnesota. Understandably, the Spiders might want to hold back a bit during their three matchups against Salt Lake to save their best plans for the playoffs, but we should see a full-strength matchup against the Central Division favorites, which makes for appointment television.
Expected Ceiling: UFA Champions
Expected Floor: losing in the West Division title game
Seattle Cascades
Not too far removed from a Championship Weekend appearance of their own, the Seattle Cascades enter the season with a talented roster ready to make another playoff run after missing out last season. While the departure of Lukas Ambrose, which comes on the heels of the 2025 departure of Khalif El-Salaam, definitely lowers the collective starpower on the roster, the Cascades have plenty of up-and-coming talent ready to prove themselves, much as Ambrose did a few years ago.
First, the veteran baseline of this team keeps Seattle’s competitive floor high. Garrett Martin, Zeppelin Raunig, Conor Belfield, Tommy Li, Jack Brown, and Tommy Lin are all award winning players, and they alone could keep this team afloat in a pinch. Last season’s breakout star Langley Fitzpatrick is back and ready to make an even bigger name for himself. The last time we saw Kodi Smart1, he was an effective quarterback for a strong team – if he is anything like that seven years later, the Cascades are lucky to have him. Recent college graduates like Keaton Orser and Ben Kass-Mullet may not have UFA experience, but both are big game players who will surely prove valuable.
While Seattle enters this season with perhaps fewer “big names” and “known quantities” than in recent years, they are brimming with potential and should find their way into the playoff conversation.
Key Additions: Kodi Smart (returning), Keaton Orser, Ben Kass-Mullet
Key Losses: Lukas Ambrose, Tony Goss, Mikey O’Brien, Aaron Wolf, Christian Foster
X-Factor: continued development of young, unproven players
Biggest Game: May 31 at Austin. The second day of the back-to-back in Texas is notoriously difficult. Seattle doesn’t need to win this game, but a playoff team would be competitive here and Seattle can prove as much with their performance in this game.
Expected Ceiling: playoff participant
Expected Floor: missing the playoffs
Colorado Apex
Combined with a new team name, the Colorado Apex will have a new outlook this season as well. For the first time since their 2022 debut, the Apex are not favored to make the playoffs. There’s no point in hiding it: the Apex lose a lot of very talented players from last year’s squad. Alex Atkins, Noah Coolman, Tobias Brooks, Elliot Hawkins, and Zeke Thoreson will all be playing elsewhere this year, leaving Quinn Finer as the lone remaining proven All-Star level player on the squad. Finer also may miss the beginning of the season as he continues to recover from a hamstring injury that limited him last year, too.
Matt Jackson will trade his playing cleats for a coaching clipboard, replacing Mike Lun who is not coaching the team this year, alongside familiar Denver skipper but new Apex coach Joe Durst, and returning coaches Tim Kefalas and Zane Barber. That is a lot of turnover for a team that not too long ago held championship aspirations. This year’s team might be about finding the next wave of stars to fill the shoes of those who left, as plenty of younger players like Ezra Thoreson, Dan Bauman, Atkin Arnstein, and Nanda Min-Fink will have more opportunity than they might have on previous versions of this team.
Key Additions: Kuochuan Ponzio, Conor Tabor (returning), Jimmy McGuinness
Key Losses: Alex Atkins, Noah Coolman, Tobias Brooks, Matt Jackson, Elliot Hawkins, Zeke Thoreson
X-Factor: Building a system in which the new players can shine and develop into stars
Biggest Game: May 15-16 at DC and New York marks the longest trip the Apex have ever taken, and they’ll be up against two of the best teams in the league. You know the Apex are going to want to perform well against Atkins and New York.
Expected Ceiling: a surprise playoff appearance
Expected Floor: falling to last in the division
Oregon Steel
Last year the Oregon Steel won just a single game against non-Vegas teams. Without the Bighorns in their division, wins may be harder to come by for the Steel, but the team might find itself more capable of earning them. Bringing back Felix Moren (who presumably will only play once his college season ends) adds a player who can slot into any position and find a way to make a positive impact. Along with continued development from David Barram, Archer Gordon, Orlando Impas, Ben Thoennes, and Callahan Bosworth, the Steel can put together a lineup that has everything needed to compete in a strong division.
While Oregon does not have the depth yet to compete with the perennial playoff teams, the players on this year’s team have enough potential to form the core of the next Oregon playoff team a few years down the road.
Key Additions: Felix Moren (returning), Marcus Beidler
Key Losses: Antonio Rueda
X-Factor: integrating the college players mid-season
Biggest Game: May 3 against Colorado – if Colorado’s Quinn Finer is not yet healthy, this could be an upset opportunity for the Steel and a chance to set a positive tone early in the season
Expected Ceiling: Winning more than three games this season would be a good accomplishment
Expected Floor: last in the division
2019 with Seattle ↩
