The Distant Finale took place three years after the ending of the Youth World Cup. It revealed that most of the football players had graduated from highschool, and were playing either at the university level or in the semi-pro football league of Japan. The story ended with all of them eagerly competing to enter the Rice Bowl, in which the champions of the college league fight against the champions of the semi-pro league - the greatest event in Japan's american football. The following are the rosters of their teams.
Ranking: A
The football team of the Enma University. They were widely known for having few players and lackluster defense. Despite these, the Enma Fires were strongly held together by Centre Ryokan Kurita, Quarterback Unsui Kongo, and Kicker Kotaro Sasaki. In the epilogue, they were joined by the first-years Sena Kobayakawa, Taro "Monta" Raimon, and Riku Kaitani, whose presence drastically strengthened their offense. The joining of the first-year Kengo Mizumachi also gave some hope that they may get to improve their defense a little. Their main goal was to defeat the Saikyodai Wizards and enter the Rice Bowl.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: They seem to be very oriented towards offense.
- Badass Crew: Except for Unsui, all of the named players had been the members of Japan's national team at the Youth World Cup.
- Color-Coded Characters: Their uniforms were red, just like the Devil Bats'.
- Determinators: Most of them were this.
- Dumb Jocks: It seems nearly all of the players except Riku and Unsui were these. Exemplified by Mizumachi.Mizumachi: I joined because I heard you could get in without studying!
- Expy: A Glass Cannon team with red uniforms and few players (most of whom were Dumb Jocks)? Started by Kurita and a guy who had no physical abilities? In a school that accepts everyone who entered no matter how badly they did in the entry exam? They sounded like nothing more than the university version of the Deimon Devil Bats.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Said to have been "improved markedly" with the addition of the current first-years.
- Glass Cannon: They have Sena and Riku for running, Monta for passing, Kotaro for kicking, and Kurita as an offensive lineman. They can pretty much do whatever they want when they're on offense. But they're also explicitly said to have terrible defense. Hopefully Mizumachi might help improve things a little.
- The Leader: Kurita, as part of the Devil Bats founders' promise to be the three kings of university-level football.
- Lovable Jocks: Despite being in general not very bright, they consist of some of the most sympathetic characters in the series.
- Ragtag Band of Misfits: They were the Expy to the Devil Bats, after all...
- Surrounded by Idiots: Poor Riku and Unsui.
- True Companions: They looked like they were heading this way, given that they, for some unexplained reason, had got another TV with their names written on it and vowed to enter the Rice Bowl together.
Ranking: S
The football team of the Saikyodai University, and the team most widely regarded as the to-be champions. They were led by the devilish Quarterback Yoichi Hiruma supported by the genius Agon Kongo, the forceful charges of Takeru Yamato and Hayato Akaba, and the perfect passing squad of Taka Honjo and Ikkyu Hosokawa. Their greatest worry was in their linemen, who, while strong, did not look like they could deal with Kurita and Gaou.
- Academic Athletes: It's implied that the Saikyodai University was also a very good college when it came to academic standings.
- The Ace: Explicitly said to be the strongest team in the entire league.
- Badass Crew: They're a team of freaking geniuses. We're just plain screwed.
- Defeating the Undefeatable: Given that Unsui mentioned that defeating the Wizards used to be a dream (before the current first-years joined the Enma Fires), to beat the Wizards looked like it's going to be this trope.
- Expy: Let's see... An all-star team of the best players possible? Who had geniuses among a ridiculously large roster? Widely hailed as the top of the top? The Wizards seemed to be the university version of the Naga and the Alexanders combined. This is evident even from their roster of star players.
- Lightning Bruisers: Agon, Yamato, and Akaba, full stop.
- Master of All: Outside the line, they didn't seem to have any potential weakness at all.
- Mythical Motifs: Wizards, presumably.
- Name To Run Away From Really Fast: "Saikyodai" literally means the greatest capital. It is also probably a pun on the Japanese words for the most powerful.
- Opposing Sports Team: Well, Yamato was a Nice Guy, but since they had Agon...
- The Rival: To the Enma Fires. Sena wanted to face Hiruma. Unsui wanted to face Agon. Kotaro and Akaba probably still had their enmity, and two out of Monta's three rivals were part of the team.
Ranking: A
The football team of the Ojo University, and the team most widely renowned for their defense. With the now world-class Seijuro Shin and the Golden Generation (now college seniors) fighting side-by-side, their defense had evolved into a whole new level. The entire college league was eagerly anticipating the team who could score a touchdown on this impenetrable army.
- Badass Crew: Shin, Sakuraba, and Ootawara had all played on the World Cup.
- Color-Coded Characters: White or Silver, presumably.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Golden Generation had received one from the White Knights thanks to Shin.
- Expy: Thanks to the Ojo University's policy of elementary-school-to-college education, the roster of Ojo hadn't changed at all. Bar the absence of Takami, they were just the university version of the White Knights.
- Freudian Trio:
- Knight in Shining Armor: This will most likely be their Motifs.
- Stone Wall: Shin plus the Golden Generation.
Ranking: B
A long-time team who had been on the decline for a while. The joining of Ichiro Takami and Manabu Yukimitsu introduced a more strategic playing style to the team, and they were said to be slowly rebuilding their strength.
- Academic Athletes: The Shuei was said to be a medical university. In Japan, medical science is generally one of the most academically demanding disciplines to gain entry to.
- Animal Motifs: Doctor Fish, presumably.
- Expy: Averted. This team lacks an obvious counterpart from the highschool league.
- Save Our Team: The addition of Takami and Yukimitsu seemed to be this.
- The Smart Guys: A whole team of these, no less.
- Weak, but Skilled: Given that their only star players were Takami and Yukimitsu, they looked like they would be this.
Ranking: A
The greatest dark horse team of the semi-pro league, consisting primarily of members of the Takekura Construction. Despite having been founded for just two years, they were already hailed as the one of the (if not the) most powerful among semi-pros. With Gen "Musashi" Takekura's kicks, Kid and Jo Tetsuma's unstoppable passes, and Rikiya Gaou blowing through the opposing lines, they were even greater offensive powerhouse and worse-off in defense than the Enma Fires. With Gaou breaking their opponents' quarterbacks, the team adopted a highly aggressive defense style.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Even more so than the Enma Fires.
- Badass Crew: Just look at their roster!
- Let's not forget that Kuroki and Togano were in the Babel too.
- Expy: They seemed to be the semi-pro version of both the Wild Gunmen and of the Dinosaurs, given that they're even more aggressive than the Enma Fires (who's the Expy to the Devil Bats already) and used Gaou's brute strength as their key defense tactic.
- Final Boss: Supposed to be this, as the Rice Bowl would involve the champions of the college league (which included all other teams listed here) fighting against the champions of the semi-pro league.
- Glass Cannon: If Riko's words were to be trusted, their defense was worse than the Enma Fires'.
- Mythical Motifs: The team is named after the Tower of Babel, which is actually quite fitting, since the Tower of Babel was a group of people of vastly different nationalities working together to build the tower, whilst the football team itself includes players from very different highschool teams (i.e., the Devil Bats, the Wild Gunmen, and the Dinosaurs).
- Ragtag Band of Misfits: Many of them seemed to have just finished highschool, and their roster included a runaway shooting ace, a powerhouse receiver with mental issues, and an inhumanly muscled lineman with Blood Knight tendency...
- Unnecessary Roughness: More or less implied since they had Gaou. Not that Musashi would ask him to break players' bones, but Gaou just couldn't hold back.
Ranking: Unknown
The football team of the thuggish Zokuto College. They used to be an unremarkable team, but were said to have evolved into legitimate contenders after Habashira Rui signed up for the team.
- Animal Motifs: Frilled Lizards, to go with the Habashira family's reptile theme.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Had suffered this at the hand of the NASA Aliens once.
- Delinquents: A full team of these.
- Expy: The university version of the Zokugaku Chameleons.
- Ragtag Band of Misfits: They're most likely this, given that they were basically the university version of the Zokugaku Chameleons, who're already a group of thugs and hooligans.
- Took a Level in Badass: Said to have undergone this after Habashira joined.
