With the 2025 Indoor Football League regular season officially finished, the Bay Area Panthers can turn their attention toward this Sunday's (Aug. 3) playoff game at SAP Center versus the Vegas Knight Hawks.

The Panthers—tagged with the IFL's best record at 13-3 while looking for their second league title in franchise history—have known for some time that they'd be hosting an opening-round postseason matchup but it took until the final bid of Week 19 to declare their opponent. 

For top-seeded Bay Area, the crystal ball showed chances of an upcoming meeting with either Vegas or the San Diego Strike Force. Subsequently, No. 3 San Diego was victorious last Sunday against the No. 2 Arizona Rattlers, mathematically forcing the Knight Hawks into the West's fourth and final postseason spot.

This weekend will present the third head-to-head contest of 2025 between Bay Area and Vegas. In June, the Panthers trounced the Knight Hawks at Lee's Family Forum, 44-31. From there, Bay Area also defeated Vegas (very narrowly) at home earlier in July; the latter matchup was one of the most thrilling games of the entire campaign.

As noted, Panthers vs. Knight Hawks is next scheduled for Sunday, August 3 (5:05 PM PT) in Downtown San Jose. Postseason tickets—including single-game, season, group, and suite experiences—are available now through Ticketmaster.

Surveying this year's complete IFL playoff bracket, the Strike Force and defending-champion Rattlers will battle it out from Desert Diamond Arena on Monday, August 4. Naturally, if Bay Area can take down Vegas, they'll then need to go through the winner of San Diego-Arizona.

In the East, up first will be the No. 4 Jacksonville Jaguars at No. 1 Quad City Steamwheelers (Sat., Aug. 2). From there, No. 3 Tulsa Oilers Football will visit the No. 2 Green Bay Blizzard (Sun, Aug. 3). Tune into the IFL Network to scope all the playoff action!

For those wondering, the 2025 IFL National Championship—televised by CBS Sports Network—is reserved for Saturday, August 23 at Tucson Arena.