2025 UFL season

Second season of the UFL

Sports season

2025 UFL season

League| United Football League
Sport| American football
Duration| Regular season:
March 28 – June 1
Playoffs:
June 7 – 14
Number of games| 43 (40 regular-season games, 3 postseason games)
Number of teams| 8
TV partner(s)| ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, Fox, FS1
Draft
Top draft pick| Jason Bean (QB)
Picked by| Memphis Showboats
2025 UFL Championship
Venue| TBD
Seasons

← 2024

The 2025 UFL season is the upcoming second season of the United Football League. The Birmingham Stallions are the defending champions where they defeated the San Antonio Brahmas 25–0 in the 2024 UFL Championship Game, the only shutout of the entire season, to win their third consecutive spring football championship, adding to their back-to-back championships in the rebooted USFL.

## Offseason

[edit]

The UFL exceeded internal expectations for the 2024 season, with Fox Sports executive Eric Shanks commenting that, though the league still lost money, it was "ahead of the expected pace" in terms of achieving self-sustenance, while the league long-term goal is to solicit local investors in an owner-operator arrangement similar to that used by Major League Soccer and the previous United Football League.[1] Later reports suggested that the 2025 season will be the league's last one, if it will not achieve greater commercial success.[2]

Television viewership rose substantially compared to the previous season as separate leagues, while ticket sales in most cities declined, prompting the league ownership to shift investment toward local ticket sales teams. The inaugural season of the UFL averaged 832,000 viewers per game this season, a 34% increase from the average of 619,000 viewers the USFL and XFL attracted last year, while the championship game on Fox drew the highest viewership with 1.596 million viewers.[1] However, the average attendance dipped from the XFL's 2023 season average of 14,703 to 13,512.[3]

In an interview after the season Head of Football Operations Daryl Johnston said: "With our home markets, we’ve got to build that trust there — that we’re not going to leave or [that] the league isn't going to fold. We’ve got a couple cities that historically have been a part of spring football, they've committed to a team and that team has left. ... We’ve still got some trust to build in our home markets. We are going to be able to dial into the details. We’re going to have a traditional offseason calendar where we can be ahead of the curve instead of being in a position where we have to chase it a little bit".[4]

77 UFL players signed with the NFL for their 2024 preseason; of those, 21 players were on NFL rosters on opening week including active rosters, practice squads and injured reserve, with two players — Jake Bates and Jalen Redmond — making the 53 roster for week 1.[5] Minnesota Vikings general manager Kwesi Adofo-Mensah would later praised the UFL for its roll in player development, and said: "Growth opportunities afforded players by the UFL can absolutely lead to better competition on NFL rosters. If players in the UFL ascend through the opportunity with professional organizations and access to continued coaching and structure, that provides us with valuable information to evaluate if those ascending players fit the characteristics we target to bring potential added value and competition to our roster".[6]

## Teams

[edit]

As one of the conditions for approving the merger of the XFL and USFL, federal regulators were said to have "prefer(red) more opportunities" (eventual expansion teams) than the eight teams that were included in the 2024 season.[7] No such expansion is planned for 2025, nor are any relocations, as Daryl Johnston stated that the ticket sales in most of the poorer-selling markets could be improved by showing stability and following a more "traditional offseason calendar."[8]

On September 13, 2024, the Houston Roughnecks announced that they would be returning to TDECU Stadium for the 2025 season, following renovations to that stadium. The previous incarnation of the Roughnecks had played at TDECU in 2020 and 2023; the current Roughnecks had played the 2024 season at Rice Stadium while TDECU Stadium was being renovated.[9][10] On August it was reported that the Battlehawks will host six games in 2025, taking one home game from the Brahmas, as a result of the Alamodome major event commitments for the months of April, May and June.[11][12]

Teams in the 2025 UFL season  Conference  | Team  | Location  | Stadium  | Capacity  | First season  | Head coach

|
|
|
|
|
|

USFL Conference | Birmingham Stallions | Birmingham, Alabama | Protective Stadium | 47,100  | 2022  | Skip Holtz
Houston Roughnecks | Houston, Texas | TDECU Stadium | 40,000  | 2020  | Curtis Johnson
Memphis Showboats | Memphis, Tennessee | Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium | 50,000  | 2023  | Ken Whisenhunt
Michigan Panthers | Detroit, Michigan | Ford Field | 65,000  | 2022  | Mike Nolan

XFL Conference | Arlington Renegades | Arlington, Texas | Choctaw Stadium | 25,000  | 2020  | Bob Stoops
DC Defenders | Washington, D.C. | Audi Field | 20,000  | 2020  | Reggie Barlow
San Antonio Brahmas | San Antonio, Texas | Alamodome | 64,000  | 2023  | Wade Phillips
St. Louis Battlehawks | St. Louis, Missouri | The Dome at America's Center | 67,277  | 2020  | Anthony Becht

Arlington

Houston

Memphis

Michigan

Birmingham

San Antonio

St. Louis

class=notpageimage|

Locations of current teams for the 2025 UFL season, (USFL Conference – red; XFL Conference – blue)

## Players

[edit]

On August 12, 2024, the United Football League Players Association released a statement announcing that United Steelworkers, which had represented the association (and its predecessor for the USFL), would no longer represent the league's players. The statement also strongly recommended that the players organize under another established union and not affiliate with the United Football Players Association, with which the USW and UFLPA had fallen out in 2023, without a "confidential background check."[13] Despite this warning, on October 12, the UFPA issued a statement claiming the UFL players had ratified an agreement establishing the UFPA as their union, and that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) had recognized the vote.[14]

During the 2025 offseason, the UFL hosted seven player showcases across the United States from July to November in St. Louis, Washington D.C., Atlanta, Houston, Orlando, San Diego and Dallas, with selected players bein included in the next UFL Draft.[15]

On September 7, 2024 Memphis Showboats wide receiver Diondre Overton died in a shooting incident.[16]

### Draft

[edit]

See also: 2024 UFL draft

The 2024 UFL draft ahead of the 2025 season, was held on July 17, 2024. The draft consisted of 10 rounds of players who were eligible for the 2024 NFL draft in April but went undrafted.[17][18] Memphis, winner of the first overall draft pick as a result of its week 10 victory in 2024, chose quarterback Jason Bean with the selection.[19]

## Coaches

[edit]

Three of the four coaches who came into the UFL by way of the XFL—Arlington's Bob Stoops, St. Louis's Anthony Becht and DC's Reggie Barlow—are believed to be reaching the end of their guaranteed XFL contracts, and will be subject to new terms that the USFL coaches and all assistants agreed upon in 2024 that were less generous than the 2023 XFL's were.[20] (The lone exception, San Antonio's Wade Phillips, is on the second year of a two-year contract extension he signed prior to the merger.[21]) Stoops, the league's longest-tenured coach and the only remaining coach from the inaugural 2020 XFL season, was noncommittal about returning after the 2024 season, stating he was open to returning for 2025 but that "you never know what the structure is going to look like."[22] Becht announced he had committed to a third season as the Battlehawks' coach in August 2024.[23]

Team  | Departing coach  | Incoming coach  | Reason for leaving  | Notes

|
|
|
|

Memphis Showboats  | John DeFilippo | Ken Whisenhunt | Resigned  | DeFilippo had coached the Showboats in 2024 after coaching the contracted New Orleans Breakers in 2023, with a combined record of 9-11 (.450), with his season with the Breakers at 7-3 (.700) and the Showboats at 2-8 (.200). His resignation coincides with the resignation of general manager Dennis Polian.[24][25]

Whisenhunt had spent the 2023 and part of the 2024 seasons as special assistant to head coach Kalen DeBoer at Alabama; he had extensive experience as an offensive coordinator at the college and NFL levels, and two stints as an NFL head coach for the Arizona Cardinals and Tennessee Titans. He was hired along with new general manager Jim Monos September 23, 2024.[26]

## Season structure

[edit]

### Preseason

[edit]

This is the third and final year of the league's agreement with Arlington, Texas, to serve as the league's centralized hub.[27]

### Regular season

[edit]

The league is divided into two conferences, the USFL Conference and the XFL Conference, each a continuation of its respective league. Each team will play a ten-game schedule with no bye weeks, playing two games against each conference rival (one home and one away) and one game against each team in the other conference, all eight teams playing in their home markets, starting on March 28.[28][8][29][30]

Due to an increase in stadium conflicts with the Alamodome in 2025 compared to previous years, in particular the dome's hosting of the 2025 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament Final Four, the San Antonio Brahmas will only host four home games in 2025. Both of the Brahmas' in-division games against the St. Louis Battlehawks will be hosted at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, giving the Battlehawks six home games.[31]

### Postseason

[edit]

The postseason will have four teams, with the first and second-ranked team in each conference playing in the XFL Championship Game and USFL Championship Game, the winners of which will advance to the 2025 UFL Championship Game on June 14, which will be held at a neutral site chosen among the league's eight markets as a reward for strong fan support and attendance.[32] Audi Field, which had been an early favorite for the game, ruled itself out due to schedule conflicts with the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup scheduled to begin play at the stadium that weekend.[33][34]

## Media

[edit]

### Television

[edit]

In the United States, the television rights for the UFL are held by Fox and ESPN (which is under its third season of a five-year deal),[35] For season two, one game each week will be contested on the Friday night on main Fox in order to accommodate Fox's new IndyCar deal and to fill a  notoriously difficult-to-fill void on the Friday schedule left when WWE SmackDown returned to USA Network.[1] Most of the advertising revenue the networks will collect is being sold as part of bulk agreements with Fox Sports and ESPN Inc. and not as a standalone television series.[1] In September 2024, the league confirmed the 2025 season start date and changes to the TV schedule.[36][37]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Cahillane, Mollie; Fischer, Ben (June 21, 2024). "UFL's first season provides a building block". Sports Business Journal. Retrieved June 22, 2024.
2. ^ "UFL 2025: Make Or Break Season for Spring Pro Football's Staying Power". SI.com.
3. ^ "Final UFL Attendance Figures Fall Short of XFL Last Year". SI.com.
4. ^ "UFL 2024: Year 2 evolution to include more innovation, player development". FOXsports.com.
5. ^ Miller, Anthony (August 28, 2024). "Former All-UFL Kicker Included in Detroit Lions' 53-Man Roster". UFL. Retrieved August 30, 2024.
6. ^ "Minnesota Vikings GM: Players From UFL "Lead to Better Competition on NFL Rosters"". SI.com.
7. ^ McCann, Michael; Soshnick, Scott (November 30, 2023). "XFL, USFL Merger Approved by Federal Authorities". Sportico.com. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
8. ^ a b Williams, Eric (June 18, 2024). "UFL 2024: Year 2 evolution to include more innovation, player development". Fox Sports on MSN.
9. ^ Miller, Anthony (September 13, 2024). "Houston Roughnecks to Return to TDECU Stadium for 2025 Season". UFL. Retrieved September 17, 2024.
10. ^ Mark Perry (September 12, 2024). "PR: Roughnecks to Play 2025 UFL Season at University of Houston's TDECU Stadium". uflnewshub.com. Archived from the original on September 12, 2024. Retrieved September 12, 2024.
11. ^ "Battlehawks To Host Six Games In 2025, Details On Alamodome 2025 Problem". UFL News Hub.
12. ^ "San Antonio Brahmas Face Unique 2025 Schedule Amid Alamodome Conflicts". UFL News Hub.
13. ^ Perry, Mark (August 12, 2024). "UFL Players Seek New Representation as USW/UFLPA Partnership Ends". UFL News Hub. Retrieved August 12, 2024.
14. ^ Larsen, James (October 11, 2024). "UFPA Officially Voted In As UFL's Player Union For 2025". Pro Football Newsroom. Retrieved October 13, 2024.
15. ^ "UFL Adds Additional Player Showcase in Dallas". SI.com.
16. ^ "UFL Player Diondre Overton Dies in Shooting at Age 26". UFL News Hub.
17. ^ "2024 UFL College Draft Set for Wednesday, July 17". United Football League. July 11, 2024.
18. ^ Garcia, Art (July 11, 2024). "The 2024 UFL College Draft is Wednesday, with the Memphis Showboats owning the first pick". Sports Illustrated FanNation.
19. ^ Laddha, Shreyas (July 17, 2024). "Former Kansas Jayhawks quarterback Jason Bean picked No. 1 overall in UFL draft". Kansas City Star.
20. ^ "UFL Pay Structure for Coaches, Players: What We Know". SI.com. January 12, 2024.
21. ^ Mitchell, Mike (August 12, 2024). "Which UFL Coach Will Be Next To Depart?". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved August 12, 2024.
22. ^ Miller, Anthony (May 30, 2024). "Arlington Renegades Coach Bob Stoops Addresses UFL Future". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved June 28, 2024.
23. ^ Florio, Mike (August 9, 2024). "Anthony Becht will spend UFL offseason working Jets games". ProFootballTalk. Retrieved August 11, 2024.
24. ^ "Memphis Showboats GM Stepping Down After One Season". Sports Illustrated. August 3, 2024. Retrieved August 10, 2024.
25. ^ "John DeFillippo resigns as coach of Memphis Showboats". NBC Sports. August 10, 2024. Retrieved August 10, 2024.
26. ^ Dylan, Jonah. "Former Cardinals, Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt hired by Memphis Showboats". The Commercial Appeal. Retrieved September 23, 2024.
27. ^ "Common Cents! UFL Born Out Of Financial Reckoning For Both USFL, XFL". SI.com. January 14, 2024.
28. ^ "UFL President Reveals League's Future Plans, Schedule, Vision". SI.com. January 4, 2024.
29. ^ Mark Perry (September 17, 2024). "PR: United Football League (UFL) Returns March 28, Friday Night Games". uflnewshub.com. Archived from the original on September 17, 2024. Retrieved September 17, 2024.
30. ^ Sue Levine (September 18, 2024). "All The UFL Needs For A Great 2025 Is Fantasy Football". uflnewshub.com. Archived from the original on September 20, 2024. Retrieved September 18, 2024.
31. ^ Schneider, Joey (August 21, 2024). "St. Louis Battlehawks to host extra sixth home game in 2025 season". KTVI. Retrieved August 21, 2024.
32. ^ Durando, Stu (March 14, 2024). "'Wow, this market is back': St. Louis gets UFL championship game". STLtoday.com. Retrieved March 14, 2024.
33. ^ Perry, Mark (October 13, 2024). "Exclusive: Audi Field Out As UFL Championship Location, Protective Stadium In". Retrieved October 14, 2024.
34. ^ Field, Audi (September 28, 2024). "Audi Field Named as a Host Stadium for the Historic FIFA Club World Cup 2025™". Audi Field. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
35. ^ Steinberg, Brian (May 17, 2022). "Disney Strikes Deal to Put XFL on ESPN, FX, ABC". Variety. Retrieved April 23, 2024.
36. ^ "UFL Confirms 2025 Season Start Date, Changes to TV Schedule". SI.com.
37. ^ Perry, Mark (October 9, 2024). "UFL Announces Home/Away Team Matchups for the 2025 Season". UFL News Hub. Retrieved October 10, 2024.

* v
* t
* e

United Football League

USFL Conference|

| Teams|

* Birmingham Stallions
* Houston Roughnecks
* Memphis Showboats
* Michigan Panthers

|

Stadiums|

* Ford Field
* Protective Stadium
* Rice Stadium
* Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium

XFL Conference|

| Teams|

* Arlington Renegades
* DC Defenders
* San Antonio Brahmas
* St. Louis Battlehawks

|

Stadiums|

* Alamodome
* Audi Field
* Choctaw Stadium
* The Dome at America's Center

Key personnel|

* Dany Garcia
* chairwoman/co-owner
* Dwayne Johnson
* co-owner
* Gerry Cardinale
* Russ Brandon
* Fox Corporation (50%)
* president
* Doug Whaley
* Daryl Johnston
* senior VP, player personnel
* Dean Blandino
* Mike Pereira

Drafts|

* 2024 dispersal
* 2024

Seasons|

* 2024
* 2025

Championships|

* 2024

Related articles|

* UFL starting quarterbacks
* USFL (2022)
* XFL (2020)
* Timeline of the UFL

* v
* t
* e

2025 UFL season

USFL Conference|

* Birmingham Stallions
* Houston Roughnecks
* Memphis Showboats
* Michigan Panthers

XFL Conference|

* Arlington Renegades
* DC Defenders
* San Antonio Brahmas
* St. Louis Battlehawks

Draft • UFL Championship
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*[t]: Discuss this template
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