After watching their professional indoor football league crumble around them for the second consecutive off-season, the Augusta Spartans didn't have much of a choice.

The team is moving to its third league in less than three years, owner Jimmy Young said Monday.

Augusta and the Columbus Lions have left the World Indoor Football League after its inaugural - and perhaps only - season. They have signed on with the American Indoor Football Association, which enters its second season next year.

The WIFL completed its first season in June, when Augusta defeated Columbus in World Bowl I. There likely won't be a World Bowl II, after the four-team WIFL failed to grow this off-season.

"We didn't want to go back to playing three teams again," Spartans owner Jimmy Young said. "One year was enough."

Last month, the WIFL brought in a fifth team, the Tallahassee Titans, formerly of the AIFA, and claimed it would expand to six or eight teams for next year.

But, according to Young, another charter WIFL team, the Osceola Ghostriders, planned to fold, reducing the league to four teams again.

"One team signed up and one dropped out. I said we wouldn't go through this again," Young said. "We thought (the WIFL) could get to six then maybe to eight after next year, and I liked it, but the problem with this football is that you don't have control over anything.

"We're in there doing everything right, winning the championship, and you turn around and somebody has cut the legs from under you. It's very disappointing."

Last week Zack McDonald, owner of the Daytona Beach Thunder, announced the team was attempting to leave the WIFL to join Arena Football League 2. That didn't happen.

What it did was leave Augusta and Columbus to search elsewhere. AIFA co-founder John Morris was more than happy to provide an opportunity for the WIFL's top two teams in wins and in attendance.

"We were getting ready to close and go to scheduling for our teams when we became aware of the situation with the other league," Morris said. "We don't usually like to contact teams in other leagues, but with the principal owner of the WIFL (McDonald) making an announcement they weren't coming back - and knowing the two other teams involved in that situation, being Columbus and Augusta, which each had a solid track record on the field and in attendance - it just seemed like a great opportunity."

The AIFA featured 15 teams in two divisions last season, its first, and has added several more. Spartans coach Bubba Diggs said he thinks the move will increase rivalries, exposure and stability.

"It's kind of bittersweet, really. We would've liked to defend our WIFL title," Diggs said. "But I guess there were too many chiefs and not enough Indians, so to speak. This league will be more competitive and will give the people of Augusta a chance to see some more teams.

"That's the way it is in minor league ball. We've just got to move forward."

The Spartans played their first-ever season in 2006 with the American Indoor Football League, which folded last year. Augusta and Columbus then joined Daytona Beach and Osceola to start up the "owner-friendly" WIFL.

Reach Steve Sanders at (706) 823-3216 or steven.l.sanders@augustachronicle.com.