On March 30, the United Football League, or UFL, will officially kick off its inaugural season. The UFL is the newest semi-professional football league to be introduced, and it is a mixture of the XFL and the USFL.
The league will contain eight teams, four from each league.
The UFL will feature a surplus of athletes looking to keep football careers alive and possibly gain a pathway back to the NFL.
Some of the most notable players that will be competing in this new league include former University of Alabama quarterback A. J. McCarron, an influencer and YouTuber known as “Deestroying” and old NFL vets looking to get back into professional football after years of lackluster play.
The first game of the season will be a battle of the two reigning champions for the leagues involved in the merger: the XFL’s Arlington Renegades and the USFL’s Birmingham Stallions. The matchup includes many star-studded players, including QB Matt Corral and ex-NFL Pro-Bowler Vic Beasley.
Along with the two champions, the six other teams competing in the league are the D.C. Defenders, Houston Roughnecks, Memphis Showboats, Michigan Panthers, San Antonio Brahmas and the St. Louis Battle Hawks.
The UFL is yet another attempt to bring football to the spring, but the two leagues that have attempted this earlier on have fallen victim to extremely low viewership and little to no revenue.
The XFL was originally created in 2001 by Vince McMahon, but due to McMahon’s style of not letting players train the necessary time needed, the league was a total flop, only lasted one season and lost close to $70 million. Then, it made a surprise return 20 years later.
After many failed attempts to create a great semi-pro league, the surviving leagues that had achieved a following merged together to form the UFL. This time, they have been taking precautions to ensure players are well-prepared for the season.
“The right thing for spring football is to have one focused league,” said Russ Brandon, CEO of the UFL. “And I think we are all very confident that this league will be here well beyond our years.”
Only time can truly tell if this league will be able to maintain viewership and popularity in the sports world, but fans of football at GC are not sure if the UFL will stick or if it will flop like all the leagues before it.
“UFL and any variation of spring football will never truly be successful to me because they will constantly be battling with baseball and basketball,” said Nick Kirka, a sophomore biology major. “The NFL is so popular because it’s the best players, and it is being played in a time with not a lot happening in the sports world.”
Competition for viewership during the spring is a key reason as to why both the XFL and the USFL failed in the past, and therefore, the league has made changes to normal rules present in the NFL to cause intrigue among fans.
One major change the UFL is bringing to football in hopes of gaining a large audience is that there will be one-point, two-point and three-point conversions after touchdowns, differing from distance to obtain each.
The league’s other most notable difference is that the clock does not stop to keep the game constantly moving.
“These new rule changes are going to help the UFL establish themselves as a minor league of football in a way, and in this situation, they can stay around for so many years if they accept being a minor league of the NFL,” said Anna Marie, a senior nursing major.
As the UFL starts its inaugural season, there are a plethora of questions concerning it, but with these new changes, teams and players alike will hope that they will prove to the sports world that they can be a strong league for years to come.
Even if the league fails, football fans all over the globe will be able to watch football all year long and see some players that are looking to revive their careers — and possible players that were never given a true chance.
