Bo Crouch ~ Host Football Talk
The rumors of a merger have been going around since the conclusions of their respective 2023 seasons and the official announcement came out on New Year's Day as we look to the future of spring football. The questions were really surrounding what platform to they look to keep and are any teams getting left behind and those answers came out with a little bit of a surprise.
They will be using the XFL platform but rebranding as the UFL (United Football League). It will have two 4 team conferences similar to what leagues had last season. this means teams are getting the Axe and more of them than expected. There was the thought that a couple teams primarily from the USFL would fall victim to the merging process as their league didn't have stadiums for all of the teams and although the teams' represented cities around the nation they didn't actually play in those locations. With that in mind some of those teams if they couldn't find a location would make sense to trim as you bring these two together. The merger from the outside made sense as a way to quickly grow instead of the XFL owned by Duane "The Rock" Johnson and the USFL owned by Fox directly competing for viewership but also giving the impression of a wider coverage of cities. This is where the merger falls short. They are trimming 7 teams in total. I know the math doesn't sound like it adds up but it will, not from using some sort of weird common core math but because Houston had a team in both leagues and they are blending them together with the roster from the Roughnecks (XFL) and the front office from the Gamblers (USFL) This will give you the new Roughnecks and they are Joined in the USFL Conference by the Birmingham Stallions, Memphis Showboats and the Michigan Panthers. The XFL Conference is then filled out with the DC Defenders, Arlington Renegades, San Antonio Brahmas and the St. Louis Battle Hawks.
The teams that fall by the wayside are the XFL's Orlando Guardians, Seattle Sea Dragons and Vegas Vipers. The USFL then also sheds the New Jersey Generals, New Orleans Breakers, Philidelphia Stars and Pittsburgh Maulers.
Some of these cuts are a surprise not only in the way you thought the league was trying to get bigger and merging potentially doubles their size, but a couple of these teams were playoff teams the year before. It also leaves no Westcoast teams which is a large market to ignore. I'm sure this comes down to a logistical decision of travel expenses but being so early in the process of growing the league taking teams that were starting to get a following may actually hurt viewership in those markets.
At the end of the day Spring football has had limited success in the past but has a real shot this time around not because of who the owners are or that the product will be better than in years past but because the NFL isn't actively trying to crush the competition but embrace the fact it can be a developmental league for the guys that didn't quite make a roster or a player that needs more tape to be found. It's also a landscape they can try out new rules. The love of football says this has a shot and maybe some of those teams return if the UFL proves to be successful enough to expand but for now we just have to wait and see if the UFL can capture our attention when it kicks off on March 30 with both league champs squaring off for the first time under their new name plate.
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