From 22 to 25 may in Smolensk at the stadium of the Smolensk state Academy of physical culture, sports and tourism (SGAFKST) was held the final joint tournament of the National student football League, which was attended by all 16 student teams, participants of the championship of The Premier group of the NSFL. The matches of the tournament determined the final arrangement of the teams. The team of the Volga region Academy finished the debut season in the Premier League in the top of the standings - on the seventh line-behind the Champions, the team of the Kuban state University by 13 points, and from the bronze medalists from the Smolensk Academy by 8 points.
After playing 15 games in the championship of the NSFL-2017/18, "academicians" scored 23 points, won 7 victories and suffered 6 defeats, twice reducing the matches to a draw, scoring 27 and conceding 18 goals. The result and statistics for the debut are quite decent. Summing up the results of the performance of "academicians" in the NSFL Championships, it is worth Recalling that they had one season to climb to the elite Premier group of the League, in the season 2016/17, without suffering a single defeat in the First group.
The debut season in the Premier group of the team of the Volga region Academy was uneven. Bright moments (what is the story with the disqualification of the goalkeeper of the team in the starting round and the victory in the next two matches with captain Ilyas Timurshin in goal) "academicians" alternated with the failed episodes, like the departure to Kaliningrad in March, where they lost points in matches with outsiders.  
As expected, the first season in the elite division of the NSFL team of the Academy of sports went to the adaptation in a new environment for our students. Our students recognized their opponents, and next season the fans have the right to expect more from them. Vladislav Kudryashov and Azat Shamsutdinov (5 goals, 22-27 place in the League rating), Anatoly Savelyev scored 3 goals became the best snipers of the team of the Volga Academy in the final season. The best assistant team in the season was Igor Rogachevsky (5 assists – 6th place in the League). Azat Shamsutdinov assisted partners 4 times, Vladislav Kudryashov has 2 assists.
In Smolensk "academics" went, taking the 10th place in the standings. In the final tournament they had to play with the teams of Orel state University, St. Petersburg state University of industrial technology and design and the Chechen state University. Our team came to the final tournament in the best shape, intending to finish the season on a major note. On the first day Kazan played with the team of St. Petersburg University of industrial technology and design. The match was held to the accompaniment of rain and thunder. "Academics" has won with the account 1:0, and the next day defeated players from Arelho, scoring four unanswered goals. Alas, our students were not given a maximum of points in Smolensk by the players of chgu, who scored a quick ball, and, leading in the score, going to the game" second number", did not allow the" academicians " to recoup.
It is worth noting that all matches of "academics" in Smolensk on the stadium CAPXT watched the rector of Volga region Academy Yusup Yakubov. After the game with ChSU, he shared his impressions of the last game of the season and summed up the overall performance of the team in two Championships of the NSFL:  
"Today's defeat from the ChSU team was really insulting. Everyone saw that the guys had a lot of good moments when they could score. A bit unlucky. But I followed the team throughout the season and, first of all, I want to note that our students tried very hard in every game. And this is the most important! I have to say that this is our first season in the Premier Group, where we went directly through the First Group, and in General we play only the second year in the NSFL. This year we saw that all the teams of the "elite" division are strong, and felt how the level of football in the Premier group is different from what it was last year.  The season showed that our team has the potential to take more worthy places. But football is a game. Probably, we were just unlucky somewhere. Of course, we are counting on our guys in the future, we are a sports University. Children form character, they have an opportunity to improve the sports skill. Therefore, I hope that the next season will be more successful in terms of the standings. I want to thank the coaches and players, wish them good health – we know that in football there is no injury - good luck and of course more victories."
P. S. Nice "bonus" to the overall successful performance of "academicians" in the League began the award for best press attaché, which NFL said of a student of Volga Academy Gulnaz Tuhvatshin.  During the whole season Gulnaz provided information support of the team, which performed not only in student tournaments, but also in the RT championship, in social networks, on the website of the Volga region Academy and on the Internet portal of our University on the website of the NSFL. The prize for the best press attache was awarded by the legendary Russian midfielder, former Manchester United player, now the coach of the NSFL team Andrey Kanchelskis.