With the NFL season coming to an end, so does American football for the year. That would be true if there wasn’t spring football. The XFL and the USFL made sure that football fans still had a way to watch their favorite sport even when the NFL was finished with the season.
The XFL:
The XFL was recently revived by famous actor Dwayne Johnson. In April 2020, when the XFL had gone to bankruptcy, they were looking for a buyer. Three months after the bankruptcy, Dwayne Johnson along with his business partner Dany Garcia and other investors bought it for a reported 15 million dollars. It was not until 2023 that the season began. On February 18th, the XFL regular season began. The first two games of the season were the Vegas Vipers vs the Arlington Renegades and the Orlando Guardians vs the Houston Roughnecks, in which wins came for the Roughnecks and the Vipers. After a fun ten weeks, the season had finally ended and the playoffs began. The South Division championship game was the Arlington Renegades vs the Houston Roughnecks, with a victory for the Renegades 26-11, and the North Division championship game was the Seattle Sea Dragons vs the D.C Defenders, ending in a win for the Defenders 37-21. In the championship game, the Defenders faced off against the Renegades, which ended in a nice victory for the Renegades 35-26. The XFL seemed like a pretty solid and fun sport that people can enjoy while the NFL is over.
The USFL:
The 2023 season of the USFL was its second season, with eight teams just like the XFL. There was a southern and northern division which went for ten weeks, and playoffs are identical to that of the XFL. The playoffs included teams in the north like the Michigan Panthers versus the Pittsburgh Maulers, which ended in a 31-27 win for the Maulers, leading them to the championship game. Next, the New Orleans Breakers played the Birmingham Stallions with a dominant victory for the Stallions in a 47-22 win, also leading them to face off against the Maulers in the championship. However, it wasn’t much of a close game, as the Stallions dropped 28 points on the Maulers in a 28-12 victory.
The UFL:
With the XFL and the USFL merging, the two leagues combined to create the UFL, also known as the United Football League. The season won’t start until March 30th. But this league looks very promising and exciting. Although the season schedule hasn’t been released, the playoffs seem to be featuring a USFL conference and an XFL conference, which will be the one seed vs the second seed in each conference–it will determine who plays in the UFL championship. So instead of the normal eight-team league for the USFL and the XFL, it will now be a 16-team league consisting of combined schedules.
