United Football League Begins Merged Season


Will the merger of the United States Football League (USFL) and XFL translate into Spring football success?

If a professional Spring football league is ever going to be successful, it needs to be now with this merged league.  The past is littered with failed leagues which have tried this before.  Separately, both leagues have found some limited success on their own, but the united league needs to take a solid step toward stability in 2024.  The jury is still out whether or not Spring football will be able to find a place among other sports or if the football fan needs an offseason to recover from the fall.  

That will be the question as the marriage of the two leagues begins today with the kickoff of the 2024 United Football League (UFL) season.

The USFL brought over their defending champion Birmingham Stallions, along with the Houston Roughnecks (formerly Gamblers), Memphis Showboats and Michigan Panthers which will form the USFL Conference while the XFL brings in their defending champion Arlington Renegades to join the DC Defenders, San Antonio Brahmas and St. Louis Battlehawks in the XFL Conference.

The UFL will play games in their host cities.  The USFL had played their first two season in "hub" cities while the XFL played in their host franchise sites.

The Arlington Renegades and Birmingham Stallions will meet today in the first game.

Each team will play 10 regular season games with each team playing six conference games and four non-conference games.  The top two teams in each conference will qualify for the playoffs.

Coaches for the UFL's eight teams will be:  Bob Stoops (Arlington), Skip Holtz (Birmingham), Reggie Barlow (DC), C.J. Johnson (Houston), John DeFlippo (Memphis), Mike Nolan (Michigan), Wade Phillips (San Antonio) and Anthony Becht (St. Louis)

The UFL will feature a mix of players well-known to spring football and college football fans.  Breeland Speaks DE (Michigan), Tiyon Evans RB (Houston), Mark Gilbert CB (Birmingham) and Sage Surratt TE (Memphis) are some players to watch.  Luis Perez is expected to be the starting quarterback for the Arlington Renegades.  Other notable quarterbacks are A.J. McCarron returning to St. Louis, Jordan Ta'amu with DC, Case Cookus in Memphis and Jarrett Guarantano in Houston.  

A few of the rule changes include:

No extra-point kicks

As in previous incarnations of spring football, the UFL will require teams to run an offensive play after touchdowns rather than line up for a kick. There will be three options. Teams can line up at:

  • The 2-yard line for a 1-point try
  • The 5-yard line for a 2-point try
  • The 10-yard line for a 3-point try
Overtime

Those options should reduce the likelihood of a game having to go into overtime. If it happens, though, the teams will get alternating attempts to score from the 5-yard line in a best-of-three format (or until a winner is determined). No kicks will be allowed.

Kickoffs
UFL kickers will line up at the 20-yard line, a position that will limit and possibly eliminate the potential for touchbacks, similar to how the USFL played it in 2022 and 2023.

Week 1 Schedule:
Birmingham at Arlington
St. Louis at Michigan
DC at San Antonio
Memphis at Houston

For more information on the UFL:  https://www.theufl.com/


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