UFL at midseason: Many changes, but a familiar team still rules the standings

The Birmingham Stallions are playing in a new spring football league, and they’re continuing their winning ways.

The Stallions are unbeaten as the United Football League reached its midway point last week. The UFL came about after the mergers of the USFL and XFL last September.

Birmingham, the two-time USFL champion, was one of four teams to survive along with four teams from the XFL. The Stallions are the league’s only unbeaten team at 5-0 and can wrap up a playoff spot with a win at Memphis on Saturday.

“Skip Holtz is a heck of a football coach. He has a great way about him and how he manages that team,” XFL President and CEO Russ Brandon said. “When you saw them in training camp, you thought this was a team that was going to be tough to beat.”

The USFL had its first season in 2022. The only similarities it had between the USFL of 1983-85 was playing in the spring along with the team names.

The XFL, first founded in 2001 by WWE’s Vince McMahon, returned to action in 2020 but had to shut down at midseason because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It eventually filed for bankruptcy before it was bought by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Dany Garcia — Johnson’s business partner and ex-wife — and investment firm RedBird Capital Partners. The new-look XFL went up against the USFL last year.

The UFL took the best of both leagues. While games are played in team’s home markets, all the teams practice in Arlington, Texas, during the week, which the XFL did last year.

FOX Sports CEO and executive producer Eric Shanks credited Brandon and Garcia for a smooth merger.

“Russ is a great operational football executive who has contacts that are second to none. Getting to know Dany, the avenues she opens up to think about through her relationship with players and coaches, content, marketing, branding, social media, it really opened my eyes to why the XFL had been successful,” Shanks said. “Some of the metrics around our UFL coverage are successful. And a lot of that goes to Dany.”

Daryl Johnston, the former USFL president of football operations, leads the UFL football operations. Mike Periera and Dean Blandino, who were integral with developing officiating in the USFL, are also part of the UFL.

Games are averaging 2 hours, 57 minutes along with a combined 42.5 points.

While the UFL adopted the XFL’s extra point option (run/pass options with 1 point from the 2-yard line, 2 points from the 5-yard line and 3 points from the 10-yard line), the kickoffs are more traditional and taken from the USFL. The biggest difference, though, was that teams kicked off from the 20-yard line, which has resulted in a 94.9% return rate and average starting position at the 36-yard line.

If the game is tied or a team is trailing in the fourth quarter, it has the option of retaining possession after a score with a fourth-and-12 from its own 28-yard line.

Brandon said even if they knew the NFL would adopt a new kickoff model reflecting the XFL of 2020 and ’23, the UFL would have likely still gone with the more traditional approach.

“We went back and forth on the kickoff. At the end of the day, both leagues were looking at almost the identical return rate and the injury data was almost identical as well. So we kept, the more formal kickoff play,” he said.

More than 250,000 fans have attended the first 20 UFL games, including 40,317 in St. Louis on April 6 when the Battlehawks hosted the Arlington Renegades.

While Birmingham has a two-game lead over Michigan in the USFL conference, St. Louis and San Antonio are tied in the XFL conference with 4-1 records.

St. Louis has benefited from the return of coach Anthony Becht and quarterback AJ McCarron, who leads the league in passing TDs (10) and second in yards (1,051). Hakeem Butler is the league’s leading receiver with 25 receptions for 344 yards and three touchdowns.

The San Antonio Brahmas are coached by Wade Phillips, who led Houston’s USFL team last year. With Phillips’ forte being defense, it isn’t a surprise he has three of the league’s top five tacklers.

The Arlington Renegades, who won the XFL last season, are 0-5.

The top two teams in each division will qualify for the playoffs with the title game slated for June 16 in St. Louis.

Games on FOX and ABC are averaging 958,000 viewers and the ESPN/FS1 telecasts are averaging 680,000. The combined 845,000 average is a 25% increase compared to the first five weeks of last year and an overall 38% jump from last season’s regular-season average.

The numbers are solid considering the UFL has gone against March Madness and the NBA and NHL playoffs.

“I don’t think there was a doubt in anyone’s mind on either side that there was a healthy appetite in the spring. But I believe the idea that there could be two competing leagues was probably far fetched,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN’s President, Content. “It’s a very healthy number. I think it speaks to the interest in the game of football broadly. The play on the field has also taken a big step as well.”

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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