The 2022 USFL season is the planned inaugural season of the

United States Football League The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

(USFL), and the first by a league of the name since the 1985 season of the previous incarnation of the league. Planned to be played from April 16, 2022 to June 2022, it will involve eight teams, and will be played in its entirety in

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...

Background

Broadcasting

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

is the league's official broadcast partner, and plans to split the games' broadcast rights equally between

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

, FS1,

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters ...

and

USA Network USA Network (simply USA) is an American basic cable television channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of Comcast's NBCUniversal through NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment. It was originally launched in 1977 as Mad ...

. On December 15, 2021, Fox and NBC had finalized their deals with the latter joined as official broadcast and streaming partner. Both partners plan to broadcast 20 over-the-air games (12 on Fox, 8 on NBC), 19 cable-only games (10 on FS1, 9 on USA), and 4 online-only games (on

Peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...

) during this season.

Location

The USFL began talks with officials from the city of Birmingham, Alabama, with a potential goal to host the entirety of the 2022 season in the city. On January 25, 2022, the city of Birmingham and the USFL officially announced that the city would host the 2022 season. hosting all 8 teams, holding 43 games, and the use of

Protective Stadium Protective Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium owned and operated by the Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Authority in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, U.S. Its naming rights are provided by the Protective Life company, which will pay $1 million ...

and

Legion Field Legion Field is an outdoor stadium in the southeastern United States in Birmingham, Alabama, primarily designed to be used as a venue for American football, but occasionally used for other large outdoor events. Opened in 1927, it is named in ho ...

. 32 to 35 games are planned to be played at Protective Stadium while 8 to 11 games are planned to be played at Legion Field. On February 16, 2022, the league announced that the 2022 Playoffs would be held in

Canton, Ohio Canton () is a city in and the county seat of Stark County, Ohio. It is located approximately south of Cleveland and south of Akron in Northeast Ohio. The city lies on the edge of Ohio's extensive Amish country, particularly in Holmes ...

Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, formerly Fawcett Stadium, is a football stadium and entertainment complex in Canton, Ohio. It is a major component of ''Hall of Fame Village'', located adjacent to the grounds of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The ...

instead of Birmingham due to conflicting scheduling with the

2022 World Games The 2022 World Games were an international multi-sport event held from July 7 to 17, 2022, in Birmingham, Alabama, United States. They were the 11th World Games, a multi-sport event featuring disciplines of Olympic sports and other competition ...

. Playoffs will be held from June 25 to July 3.

Draft

The 2022 USFL Draft occurred on February 22 and 23, 2022 and had a format similar to the

2020 XFL Draft The 2020 XFL Draft was the inaugural player selection process to fill the rosters of the eight teams of the 2020 reboot of the XFL. The draft was held on October 15–16, 2019, via conference call, with results released through the XFL's social ...

, where players would be selected in phases based on positions.

Teams

The league's eight debut teams were announced on ''

The Herd with Colin Cowherd ''The Herd with Colin Cowherd'' is a sports talk radio show hosted by Colin Cowherd on Fox Sports Radio and Fox Sports 1. The show features commentary on the day's sports news, perspective on other news stories, and interviews with celebrities, ...

'' on November 22, 2021. The teams will be separated into two divisions; the North Division will contain the

Michigan Panthers The Michigan Panthers were a professional American football team based in the Detroit, Michigan area. The Panthers competed in the United States Football League (USFL) as a member of the Western Conference and Central Division. The team played i ...

, New Jersey Generals, Philadelphia Stars, and Pittsburgh Maulers, while the South Division will include the Birmingham Stallions,

Houston Gamblers The Houston Gamblers were an American football team that competed in the United States Football League in 1984 and 1985. The Gamblers were coached by veteran NFL head coach Jack Pardee in both their seasons. They were noteworthy for introducing ...

, New Orleans Breakers, and

Tampa Bay Bandits The Tampa Bay Bandits were a professional American football team in the United States Football League (USFL) which was based in Tampa, Florida. The Bandits were a charter member of the USFL and was the only franchise to have the same principal o ...

. The eight teams that will compete in the league's first season are all trademarks that were retained from the last edition of the league. The teams' logos and home cities were also unveiled. The league announced that the season would be held in one host city, in a format similar to the 2020 NBA Bubble. Birmingham, Alabama will be the selected host city.

Season schedule

The league announced in November 2021 that teams would each play a ten-game schedule, with each team facing divisional opponents twice and non-divisional opponents once. The regular season is scheduled to run from April 16th to mid-June 2022. The champion and runner-up of each division will qualify for the playoffs, which will consist of a semifinal and championship round played in the beginning July. It is planned that games will be played on Saturdays and Sundays, with some "special broadcasts" planned for Fridays and Mondays. On January 6, 2022, along with head coaches, the league also officially announced on their website that the 2022 USFL season would begin on April 16, 2022. While specific dates have not yet been announced, an agreement between the Birmingham–Jefferson Civic Center Authority and the owners of the USFL gives use of

and

to the league between the dates of April 16 and July 3, 2022. It was revealed on January 25, 2022 that the first game of the 2022 USFL season would take place on April 16, 2022 with the Birmingham Stallions playing the New Jersey Generals at

at 7:30 ET with

and

broadcasting the game, marking the first time a football game would be carried on two major American broadcast networks since the New England Patriots/New York Giants NFL game on December 29, 2007. Tickets were released to the public at $10 per person, with children aged 15 and under free.

Regular season

Regular season standings

Media

The 2022 season will air on Fox Sports and NBC Sports with Fox (12 regular season, 1 semi-final and the championship game) and NBC (7 regular season games and 1 semi-final) airing the most games, with USA network airing 9 games, Fox Sports 1 airing 10, and Peacock airing 4 games. The Opening game will be broadcast on April 16, 2022 at 7:30 pm Eastern time on both Fox and NBC. Fox will produce the game and NBC will produce all studio coverage.

References

USFL The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

United States Football League seasons