Tucson takes over No. 1, Cedar Rapids crashes the top two, Milwaukee rewrites the record book and one GM may already regret questioning the formula.
A week ago, Jason Richmond wanted an investigation.
Northern Arizona was 1–0. Milwaukee was 0–1. Yet the Mustangs sat ahead of the Wranglers in these rankings, prompting Richmond to suggest that Michael Bautch had the media “on the payroll.”
Seven days later?
Milwaukee scored 259.70 points, the highest regular-season total in GLFL history.
Northern Arizona surrendered 226.30 to Tucson.
The Mustangs have climbed to No. 4.
The Wranglers have fallen to No. 8.
Sometimes the spreadsheet doesn't need a defense.
It just needs another week.
As always, these rankings aren't my opinion. The GLFL Power Index uses points scored, winning percentage and performance against the league median:
Power Score = PF × (2 + Win% + Median Win%)
The formula determines the order. I just get to explain what the numbers are trying to tell us.
And this week, they're getting louder.
| Movement | Team | Week 1 | Week 2 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Biggest Riser | Los Angeles Wildcats | 9th | 5th | ▲ 4 |
| Biggest Drop | Philadelphia Soul | 4th | 9th | ▼ 5 |
Los Angeles made the week's biggest jump after Josh Allen and Amon-Ra St. Brown powered the Wildcats past 200 points. Philadelphia went the other direction, falling five spots after posting the lowest score in the league.
Mason Bautch spent last week looking past Northern Arizona toward a Week 5 championship rematch with Boston.
Jason Richmond called him out for it.
Then Tucson scored 226.30 on Richmond's team.
That's one way to end an argument.
The Sugar Skulls are 2–0, have scored 448.75 points through two weeks and have now beaten Northern Arizona seven consecutive times.
Patrick Mahomes gave them 58.8 last week. Jaxon Smith-Njigba added 50.5. Jahmyr Gibbs and James Cook combined for another 58.2.
There are stars everywhere.
I called Tucson beat writer Alex Ramirez to see what she thought about his team finally sitting atop the rankings.
“They're 2–0. They should be No. 1. Call me when they're holding the trophy.”
Never change, Alex.
Tucson has spent two weeks looking exactly like the championship contender everyone expected.
Now comes the harder part: staying there.
Alright.
It's time we talk about Cedar Rapids.
The Titans scored 207.0 in Week 1.
Then they scored 209.75 in Week 2.
That's 416.75 points, two wins and zero weeks below 200.
And now they're ranked ahead of the defending champions.
If that feels aggressive, remember the rule:
Don't complain to me. Complain to the math.
Evan Mercer has covered this franchise long enough to remember plenty of Titans teams that generated optimism and eventually gave people reasons to regret it.
His assessment this week was noticeably restrained.
“Two weeks don't make a contender BUT two straight 200-point games will make me pay attention.”
That's about where I am too.
We're paying attention now.
Before anybody in Boston starts screaming:
No, I don't think the defending champions suddenly forgot how to play fantasy football.
They're 2–0.
They scored 224.15 in Week 1.
And they just survived losing Jayden Daniels for the entire second half against Brooklyn.
But 178.15 in Week 2 brought the scoring average down while Tucson and Cedar Rapids continued piling up points.
That's enough to move Boston to No. 3.
Nothing more dramatic needs to be read into it.
Chris Cholka seems considerably more interested in Week 5 anyway.
After Mason Bautch started talking about the upcoming championship rematch, Cholka responded that both teams would arrive 4–0 — and that Boston would once again prove it has the better team.
We're still three weeks away.
They're already talking.
Please, nobody ruin this for us.
Apparently Michael Bautch's check cleared.
One week after Northern Arizona's GM questioned how an 0–1 Milwaukee team could possibly rank ahead of his undefeated Wranglers, the Mustangs responded by scoring 259.70 points.
That's a new GLFL regular-season record.
It's also the third-highest score in any game in league history.
And it came one week after Milwaukee scored 189 and lost.
The Mustangs are now sitting at 449.45 points through two weeks.
Tucson has 448.75.
That's a difference of 0.07.
So why is Milwaukee only fourth?
Because Week 1 still happened.
Milwaukee is 1–1. Tucson, Cedar Rapids and Boston are 2–0. The formula rewards winning in addition to scoring.
Tommy Gallagher wasn't particularly interested in hearing my explanation.
“I'll save everybody the spreadsheet. Find me three teams you'd rather play right now.”
Fair enough.
I'll put it another way:
If the team that scored 259.70 shows up again, fourth won't last long.
Josh Allen and Amon-Ra St. Brown scored 113.5 points by themselves.
That seems useful.
Los Angeles followed a competitive Week 1 loss to Tucson with a 207.95-point performance against Vegas, and suddenly the Wildcats are sitting directly behind the league's four early heavyweights.
The ceiling isn't difficult to see.
The question is whether this roster can produce it consistently.
Sarah Bennett has been asking essentially that same question since before the season started.
Her response when I asked whether Week 2 changed her outlook:
“It showed me what they can be. It didn't show me how often they can be it.”
That's the right question.
For now, 207.95 gets your attention.
Week 1: 219.25 points.
Week 2: 153.20.
That's quite a way to demonstrate why we don't crown anybody after opening weekend.
Cleveland had an opportunity to record the 100th regular-season victory in franchise history.
Instead, the Gladiators happened to be standing across the field when Milwaukee decided to break the league scoring record.
Even Cleveland's Week 1 lineup wasn't beating 259.70.
So I'm not going to punish the Gladiators for the margin.
I am going to notice the 66-point drop in their own production.
Win No. 100 will have to wait.
And after two wildly different performances, I'm still not entirely sure which version of Cleveland we're getting.
Miami scored 144.40 last week.
And moved up.
Welcome to power rankings.
The Inferno didn't overwhelm Philadelphia. Nobody in the Miami lineup even reached 22 points.
But after drawing Boston's 224.15 in Week 1, Richard Head's team did what it needed to do:
Win.
Miami is 1–1, and that matters in a formula where winning percentage is part of the calculation.
Does seventh mean I'm suddenly convinced the Inferno are contenders?
No.
It means they're 1–1 while several teams underneath them aren't.
Sometimes there isn't a deeper story.
Oh boy.
I considered sending Jason Richmond the spreadsheet personally.
Instead, I'll just leave it here.
Northern Arizona opened the season with a win, questioned why Milwaukee was ranked ahead of them, and then had an opportunity to settle things the easy way.
Beat Tucson.
They didn't.
The Wranglers scored a respectable 184.35, but Tucson scored 226.30 and extended its winning streak in the series to seven.
Now Milwaukee is fourth.
Northern Arizona is eighth.
I checked in with Wranglers beat writer Jake Callahan after Richmond's comments became a topic around the league.
“Jason's allowed to hate the rankings. I'm allowed to point out that beating Tucson would've been a pretty effective rebuttal.”
There you go.
No payroll required.
Derek Thompson wanted everyone to keep the receipts after Philadelphia landed fourth in last week's rankings.
I hope he kept his.
The Soul followed a 207.95-point opener with 124.70 in Week 2.
That's the lowest score anyone has posted in the GLFL this season.
Caleb Williams leaving early with only 15.1 obviously mattered.
But we're not awarding hypothetical points.
Philadelphia lost to a Miami team that scored only 144.40 and became the second franchise eliminated from GLFL Survivor.
Last week's No. 4 ranking wasn't disrespect.
It was based on what Philadelphia had done.
So is this one.
Keep the receipts.
Dave Nguyen spent part of last week finding the bright side.
Sure, Vegas was near the bottom of the rankings.
At least they weren't Chicago — winless and already eliminated from Survivor.
Technically, that remains true.
Congratulations?
Vegas scored 168.40 against Los Angeles and fell to 0–2.
The Knight Hawks aren't getting blown off the field offensively, either. They scored 177.05 in Week 1.
But eventually “we weren't terrible” needs to turn into a win.
For a roster featuring Ja'Marr Chase, Malik Nabers, Derrick Henry and Marvin Harrison Jr., 0–2 wasn't supposed to be part of the plan.
Survivor remains alive.
The season needs to join it.
Chicago improved by nearly 33 points from Week 1.
They still lost.
That's the good news and bad news wrapped into one sentence.
The Slaughter scored 180.25 behind 58.55 from Dak Prescott and 32.1 from Travis Kelce, which would've been enough to beat several teams this week.
Unfortunately, they played Cedar Rapids.
Now they're 0–2.
But I'm told Chicago isn't treating the season like it's over.
The Slaughter have been exploring the trade market for star-level help, with Tucson's Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Jahmyr Gibbs among the names they've shown interest in.
Whether Tucson has any interest in helping another team fix its roster is an entirely different conversation.
Chicago beat writer Marcus Reed summed up the situation rather efficiently:
“0–2 isn't dead. Standing still at 0–2 might be.”
For once, Reed and I agree.
If Darrien Clay thinks this roster needs help, now would be the time to go find it.
Cory Colvin says his team can't catch a break.
He's not wrong about Week 2.
Jaxson Dart went down on Brooklyn's opening drive and finished with three points. That's a brutal way to begin a matchup against the defending champions.
The good news is Joe Burrow is sitting on the roster.
The bad news is he was sitting on the bench.
And before we blame everything on the injury, Brooklyn scored 159.60 in Week 1 and 142.75 in Week 2.
The Parallel Universe exercise in Ethan Calloway's recap wasn't especially sympathetic either. Brooklyn would've started 0–2 under almost every other team's schedule.
So yes, losing Dart was unlucky.
Being ranked 12th isn't.
There's still plenty of season left.
But the Bolts need more than better luck.
| Rank | Team | Record | Power Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tucson Sugar Skulls | 2–0 | 1,795.00 |
| 2 | Cedar Rapids Titans | 2–0 | 1,667.00 |
| 3 | Boston Brawlers | 2–0 | 1,609.20 |
| 4 | Milwaukee Mustangs | 1–1 | 1,573.08 |
| 5 | Los Angeles Wildcats | 1–1 | 1,365.00 |
| 6 | Cleveland Gladiators | 1–1 | 1,115.10 |
| 7 | Miami Inferno | 1–1 | 983.25 |
| 8 | Northern Arizona Wranglers | 1–1 | 928.63 |
| 9 | Philadelphia Soul | 1–1 | 831.63 |
| 10 | Vegas Knight Hawks | 0–2 | 690.90 |
| 11 | Chicago Slaughter | 0–2 | 655.10 |
| 12 | Brooklyn Bolts | 0–2 | 604.70 |
Two weeks still isn't enough to tell us who will be playing for the Lakefront Bowl in January.
But it's enough to start separating opening-week noise from actual trends.
Tucson looks every bit like the powerhouse we expected.
Boston remains undefeated.
Cedar Rapids has forced its way into a conversation I wasn't expecting to have this early.
Milwaukee followed a frustrating loss with the greatest regular-season scoring performance this league has ever seen.
And at the other end, Vegas, Chicago and Brooklyn have reached the point where “it's early” remains true — but considerably less comforting.
As for Jason Richmond?
I have good news.
The payroll department still hasn't contacted me.
See you next week.