The Indoor Football League is set to host its national championship in Tucson, the first of three title games in the Old Pueblo.
Indoor Football League commissioner Todd Tryon talks to the crowd gathered for the pre-game media day, Aug. 22, 2025, leading up to the IFL Championship in Tucson.
The fourth-seeded Vegas Knight Hawks (12-6) and second-seeded Green Bay Blizzard (12-6) will face off for the IFL championship at Tucson Arena on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports.
“Tucson is a cool, little city and the arena is somewhat similar to ours,” said Vegas head coach Mike Davis. “It’s a great environment. It’s an intimate setting that can get loud and rocking when you want it to be. Hopefully, we have enough people on our side that we can keep it rocking.”
For the IFL championship game, the league replaced the Tucson Sugar Skulls’ gray turf surface and installed a traditional-looking turf field with the IFL championship emblem in the middle of the field and the teams’ logos in the end zones.
The IFL held its annual owners meeting and awards ceremony on Friday, along with a media day, where the league announced an expansion team in the New Mexico Chupacabras. The Chupacabras, an Albuquerque-based franchise, will join the IFL in 2026.
Now the focus is on Saturday night, as both teams look to win their 13th game of the season — and their first IFL championship. Vegas joined the league in 2022, and Green Bay has been in the IFL since 2010. Here are three things to know about the showdown:
Ex-Wildcat de Laura leads Knight Hawks
Among the many connections, the most notable one is former Arizona Wildcats quarterback Jayden de Laura leading the Knight Hawks.
De Laura, who played at Arizona in 2022 and ‘23, is in his first season in the IFL. De Laura signed with Vegas before the season and was the backup to Ja’Rome Johnson, the IFL Most Valuable Player in 2024.
Vegas Knight Hawks offensive guard Moses Mallory gets video of his quarterback Jayden De Laura giving interviews during the break-out at the pre-game media day, Aug. 22, 2025, leading up to the IFL Championship in Tucson.
After Vegas’ 1-2 start, the Knight Hawks replaced Johnson with de Laura, who completed 12 of 16 passes for 124 yards and three touchdowns in his IFL debut.
De Laura said he didn’t get comfortable with indoor football until his third start.
“It was just the timing, the field is smaller, everything happens a little faster,” de Laura said. “Once I dug in and started to understand the flow of the game, the certain coverages that they can play, it made everything easier. The weapons we have, it made my job easier.”
When de Laura was at Arizona, he was prone to commit turnovers in several games, including his four-interception outing against Washington State in 2022 and his combined seven interceptions in two games against Mississippi State.
In his first season in the IFL, de Laura has passed for 1,662 yards, 34 touchdowns and three interceptions. He has just as many interceptions this season as he did in the first half of Arizona’s overtime loss to Mississippi State in Starkville.
“He doesn’t make bad decisions, for the most part,” Davis said. “He’s worried about not throwing interceptions and we’re worried about taking care of the football. The kid has been phenomenal. ... Jayden had to figure out that he knew what he was doing.”
De Laura said, “the indoor game really helped me take care of the ball.”
“You can be up 21 and then in four minutes, you’re tied,” de Laura said. “The other team can come back and take the lead, so it’s really just making the most out of every possession you have the ball.”
This isn’t de Laura’s first IFL game in Tucson. He quarterbacked the Knight Hawks to a 59-55 win over the Sugar Skulls in June. De Laura completed 7 of 8 passes for 142 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Vegas scored six rushing touchdowns in Tucson.
De Laura’s return to Tucson “was cool until I realized we weren’t the home team,” he joked.
Back in Tucson for the IFL title, “we’re just staying on ten and executing all phases of the ball, not just offense,” de Laura said.
“Our preparation is key and I feel like we did really good,” said the former Wildcat. “We just gotta go out and execute.”
Offensive fireworks
The IFL set the over/under line at 99.5 points. The over looks enticing to sports bettors considering Green Bay and Vegas are the two highest-scoring teams in the league.
Green Bay is averaging 53.7 points per game, while Vegas is averaging 48.7 points per game this season.
Blizzard head coach and two-time IFL Coach of the Year Corey Roberson said the key component to Green Bay’s offense is the offensive line.
“The big dogs up front, they protect the quarterback, so he can do him and the receivers find a way to get open and the running backs can find a lane,” Roberson said.
The engine to Green Bay’s high-powered offense is quarterback Max Meylor, who was named IFL MVP on Friday. Meylor has thrown for 2,850 yards, 65 touchdowns and nine interceptions this season and “is every bit as advertised,” Roberson said.
“His preparation is remarkable,” Roberson said of Meylor. “You can see him off to the side just studying (the playbook).”
Green Bay’s “offense isn’t flashy, but they just score points,” Davis said. “They are very good at what they do. They’re not vanilla, but they’re just very, very, very efficient. ... They just always seem to make the play when they need to make it. Kudos to them and their coaching staff.”
Vegas is coming off its second-highest scoring performance this season, a 74-68 win over San Diego Strike Force. De Laura passed for 243 yards, seven touchdowns and no interceptions in the Western Conference championship.
“That’s a well-coached team and we expect it to be a good matchup,” Roberson said.
A sweet reunion
Sugar Skulls Quarterback Matt Behrendt scores on a designed QB run during the third quarter of the Sugar Skulls vs. Quad City Steamwheelers game, June 15, 2019, in Tucson.
De Laura isn’t the only UA connection in the IFL championship. Former Arizona defensive lineman signee Adam Plant Jr. is a reserve player for the Knight Hawks.
There’s also several ties to the Tucson Sugar Skulls.
Vegas offensive coordinator Hurtis Chinn, who Davis called “a great teacher of the game,” was the Sugar Skulls’ head coach for one season in 2023. Vegas defensive coordinator Xzavie Jackson held a similar role under Chinn in Tucson.
Vegas defensive lineman Maurice Jackson played for the Sugar Skulls from 2021-23 and was a second-team All-IFL selection in ’23. Knight Hawks wide receiver Mike Carrigan played for Tucson in 2023 and ’24.
Green Bay offensive coordinator Matt Behrendt was the first-ever starting quarterback in Sugar Skulls history. Behrendt led the Sugar Skulls to the IFL playoffs in the team’s inaugural season in 2019.
