in 2016, the omaha beef took advantage of their schedule to improve their record to 7–5. omaha played six of their 12 games against first year franchises (chicago eagles and salina liberty) in which the beef recorded five of their seven wins. omaha only had one win over a team with a winning record when they played (wichita force 4-1 on april 16) and only played three games all season against teams that came into the contest with a winning record. in the beef’s seven wins, the opponent’s combined 2016 records were 29–54. despite playoff expansion for the cif in 2016, where half of all teams in the league qualified for the playoffs, the beef failed to make the playoffs for the third year in a row, the longest playoff drought in franchise history.