I believe the u19s is being restructured next year, with 10 "elite" academy's making up the first division and the rest after. The 10 elite will recieve a bigger slice of the development pie, and have knock on affects with how the clubs operate. The other clubs will still be expected to run an academy, but on a shoe string budget (obviously).

Whether or not bulls are in the top division depends on whether they are one of the magic 10

Next season. Bradford and London will receive £750k, 1st and 2nd in the championship this season will receive 500k and 450k respectively next season. The champ clubs in previous seasons received a maximum of 90k. The champ clubs salary cap was 3-400k. The salary cap will be increased to around a million in 2015 for clubs that can prove they can afford it. Quota rules allowed ONE overseas player in 2014. It is rumoured to be increasing to 5 for 2015 which is on par with SL. There are no FT teams in the championship this season. Next season there will be at least 3 probably 4.

IMO the RFL have made a creditable effort to close the gap and hopefully makes for an exciting end to the season. Also in the middle 8 the Champ clubs will get 4 home games and 3 away and the SL clubs only 3 at home and 4 away. Will London even make the middle 8?

Hope that's not true. How do the RFL define the magic 10? Academy league table position? If that's it we're screwed as we're currently bottom. Or do they go who's producing the best academy players?

Why does everything have everything have to be complicated and controversial with the RFL.

Dual Reg surely has to be scrapped next year, so we could have players too old to play for u19s not playing at all. Or will academy's be U21's? Criminal stuff like this isn't sorted yet. Sure we'll have another club vote on it though with extra finding

Quote: Bull Mania "Hope that's not true. How do the RFL define the magic 10? Academy league table position? If that's it we're screwed as we're currently bottom. Or do they go who's producing the best academy players? Why does everything have everything have to be complicated and controversial with the RFL. Dual Reg surely has to be scrapped next year, so we could have players too old to play for u19s not playing at all. Or will academy's be U21's? Criminal stuff like this isn't sorted yet. Sure we'll have another club vote on it though with extra finding'" For that, I have no idea. Having said that, I've read (yet another) set of rules coming in, so I may be wrong (but it has the same set of questions you raise): www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php ... t-centres/

Quote: Bull Mania "Hope that's not true. How do the RFL define the magic 10? Academy league table position? If that's it we're screwed as we're currently bottom. Or do they go who's producing the best academy players? Why does everything have everything have to be complicated and controversial with the RFL. Dual Reg surely has to be scrapped next year, so we could have players too old to play for u19s not playing at all. Or will academy's be U21's? Criminal stuff like this isn't sorted yet. Sure we'll have another club vote on it though with extra finding'" For that, I have no idea. Having said that, I've read (yet another) set of rules coming in, so I may be wrong (but it has the same set of questions you raise): www.totalrl.com/forums/index.php ... t-centres/

The teams above us have had the luxury this season of being protected from relegation (it being obvious for some time that London and the Bulls would go down) and being able to focus on making the play offs. They're playing without too much pressure. It could be a different matter if one of them becomes detached at the bottom of SL next season. At the moment it seems very unlikely that a Championship club could beat one of the teams currently in the 9-12th positions. But its possible that at least one of those clubs will be in decline in 12 months time.

If true that the top 4-5 in the Championship will be full time I don't think the gap between the top 4 and the 4 bottom SL1 clubs will be as wide as some are expecting. The advantage we might have over some is we'll still be full time so won't have to get used to that environment.

Indeed. Also, with relegation being on the agenda, it would be no surprise to see clubs going into panic mode and overspending towards the back end of the season, so financial problems could easily sort out who might get relegated. With the current punishment being 6 points and half the sponsorship money for two years [and who knows, it may well go up] and with those fines being carried over to new owners, I can see a few of the lower end clubs being put under extreme pressure to continue at all.