The 2026 UFL season is the third season of the United Football League.
In July 2025, the UFL sold a large minority stake to their own self over to the Impact Capital, a private equity fund owned by multibillionaire sports drink founder Mike Repole, who assumed direction of the league's business operations.
Even before Repole's management had been made public, news broke that the entire USFL Conference was being potentially shopped for relocation to potential expansion markets, due to a number of factors: Birmingham and Houston due to declining and underperforming attendance; Memphis due to even worse attendance and the death of team sponsor Fred Smith; and Michigan due to exorbitant stadium costs at Ford Field and an unwillingness to use the only other viable stadium in the Detroit market, Rynearson Stadium (though later reports suggested that the Panthers' future could be tied to AlumniFi Field, a planned 15,000-seat stadium scheduled to open in southwest Detroit in 2027 as the new home of soccer's Detroit City FC). Repole first addressed the Birmingham Stallions by challenging the Stallions fan base to purchase 5,000 season ticket deposits in order to keep the team in Alabama; though the drive fell short of that number, Repole was impressed by the speed in which the city had invested in 2,200 season tickets and a corporate suite that had not yet even been put up for sale and confirmed the Stallions were safe from relocation for 2026, but he hoped the city would purchase 15,000 to 20,000 tickets per game for the upcoming season to continue beyond that. Repole's overall target for attendance across the league is between 10,000 and 15,000 fans per game, compensating by using smaller, more intimate stadiums that would avoid the empty seats and lack of ambiance that Repole felt made the games feel like "a COVID game."
Among potential relocation targets, Columbus, Ohio had been named as a potential new 2026 market for the UFL as early as April 2025. The UFL confirmed the addition of a Columbus UFL team shortly after Repole's arrival. Other possible candidates for relocation for the 2026 season were identified in the offseason including Louisville, Kentucky at Lynn Family Stadium. Boise, Idaho and Lexington, Kentucky were identified in early reporting but they either denied having heard from the league or stated they could not host games in 2026. Boise had reached a "verbal agreement" with the previous UFL management for a team to play at Albertsons Stadium, one that was suddenly abandoned upon Repole's arrival.
Though the UFL had initially planned to expand to 10 teams for 2026, Repole paused those plans and chose to keep the league at eight teams for 2026, with intent to begin the oft-delayed expansion by 2028 and have a 16-team league by 2035.
On October 7 the UFL announced three new franchises, the Columbus Aviators playing at Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio; The Louisville Kings playing at Lynn Family Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky; and the Orlando Storm playing at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando, Florida. The league also announced that the Arlington Renegades would become the Dallas Renegades and play at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas; and that the Houston Roughnecks would become the Houston Gamblers and move to Shell Energy Stadium. It was also announced that new head coaches, uniforms and the 2026 schedule would be announced at a later date.
Players under contract to the Michigan Panthers, Memphis Showboats and San Antonio Brahmas were all transferred over to the Columbus Aviators, Louisville Kings and Orlando Storm, respectively, for the purposes of protecting players in the subsequent dispersal draft. However, the brand new teams are considered separate and will not inherit the history or records of the folded franchises.
In November 2025, Repole revealed in an interview that each team will carry 60-man rosters to training camp (compared to 75 in the 2024 season and 64 in the 2025 season), with regular season rosters set at 45 (down from 50 in the 2025 season) without specifying how many will be on the game day roster and if the teams will carry a practice squads. This would violate the terms of the CBA as negotiated in 2025. It was later announced that teams would be able to carry a offseason roster of a 60 (minimum) to 64 (maximum) players.
This is the second and final year of the UFL's collective bargaining agreement with the United Football Players Association. Under the agreement, player minimum salaries will be set at $6,400 per game, with each player also receiving seven months of health insurance and access to year-round coverage under COBRA. UFL players will also be entitled for "players accolade bonuses" for Player of the week ($1,000), Player of the year ($5,000), and MVP ($7,500), with winners of the 2026 UFL Championship Game winning a $5,000 per-player bonus.
Beginning in the 2025âÂÂ26 offseason, UFL players who have accrued two years under contract to the same team were allowed to test free agency, although none of that happened since the league decided to reallocate all players through the multi-phase leaguewide draft.
Previous plans to hold the draft in September 2025 fell through due to continued uncertainty about team composition. The delay in the draft from its previous scheduling in July was in part because a large number of the players who were drafted in 2024 (including first overall selection Jason Bean) had opted to remain in the NFL, prompting the league to place its draft after NFL preseason cuts and practice squad assignments to better assess who will be available.
In an unanticipated move, Repole planned to liquidate all eight rosters and will redistribute players currently under UFL contracts in a process similar to the 2020 and 2023 XFL drafts, with no way for current coaches to protect their existing talent. Birmingham quarterback J'Mar Smith quit the league in protest of this decision and leaked the news of Repole's plans to the press. When plans were finalized, the surviving teams were given permission to protect up to 12 players from their 2025 rosters.
The 2026 UFL draft was held from January 9âÂÂ14, 2026, at UFL HQ in Arlington, Texas.
On February 11, 2026, the Columbus Aviators traded TE Briley Moore to the DC Defenders for DT Patrick Jenkins.
On March 14, 2026, The DC Defenders traded OT Gottleib Ayedze to the Houston Gamblers for WR Braylon Sanders.
After initially implying that he would be joining the Tennessee State Tigers staff and leaving his position as interim head coach, Shannon Harris agreed to stay on as the DC Defenders' head coach on a permanent basis. He will work both jobs for their upcoming seasons. He will be the only head coach returning with the same team he had coached in 2025.
Of the three coaches of teams who were relocated, Michigan's Mike Nolan was formally terminated November 15; San Antonio's Wade Phillips had reached the end of his contract (he had not taken any action on an offer to return to the UFL before Repole's arrival); and Memphis's Jim Turner accepted a position as offensive line coach with Rutgers on December 22. Payton Pardee, who had served as the interim coach of San Antonio during Phillips's illness in 2025, joined UTEP as its tight ends coach in January 2026.
For the 2026 season the UFL signed all coaches to a year long contract, instead of the seasonal contracts they used in previous years.
On February 24, 2026, the UFL announced a series of rule changes for 2026 meant to "turbocharge offenses" and increase player safety. The changes include the following:
This is the fourth year of the league's agreement with Arlington, Texas, to serve as the league's centralized hub. Repole indicated that the hub model would be continuing for 2026 but that time in individual markets would be increased (he mentioned potential two- to three-day stays during game weeks and ten-day stays when teams play back-to-back home games) so that teams can build followings in their home cities.
The UFL will continue to follow its model of a ten-week regular season, but move from a two-conference structure of 4 teams each to a single-table standings format featuring all 8 teams. How the scheduling will play out without conferences or divisions has yet to be determined, as the scheduling formula used by all of the eight-team spring leagues of the 21st century have all relied on two four-team divisions to ensure an even schedule of playing each division rival home and away and the other division teams once. In a late August 2025 interview, Repole indicated that the season would likely run from the weekend of "March 1 through the end of June." This would have been four weeks earlier than previous years and closer to the XFL's post-Super Bowl window. Repole reversed this and stated that the season would again start on the last Friday in March as the previous two seasons had (March 28 in 2025), but that a move to the post-Super Bowl window was being considered for 2027.
The top four teams in the UFL standings will be seeded in order of record in the league semifinals, with the winners advancing to the 2026 UFL Championship Game.
<small>All games stream on ESPN+ or Fox Sports app unless otherwise noted.</small>
The playoffs will start on June 7 and will end with the championship game on June 13.
Announced attendance figures for each home game. In the weekly columns, dashes (âÂÂ) indicate away games, while bold font indicates the highest attendance of the week.
In the United States, the television rights for the UFL are being held by ESPN in now the fourth season of a five-year deal, and league co-owner Fox. For the first time, two games will also air on NFL Network (they were originally planned to stream on the ESPN app), which has been owned by ESPN since January 2026.
ESPN will use the same commentary teams as they used in the 2025 season, with the additions of Brock Osweiler and Max Browne as their flex analysts. Tyler Fulghum and Pamela Maldonado will serve as the network's betting analysts, replacing Erin Dolan. Fox Sports will likewise carry over most of the same on-air talent as previous years, including lead team of Curt Menefee and Joel Klatt.
The first viewership ratings for the NFL Network will be announced on April 5 2026 during the Houston Gamblers & Birmingham Stallions match at the Shell Energy Stadium.
<small>In millions of viewers</small>
<small>* One decimal place is shown in table but two decimal places are used in all calculations.<br>* Viewership figures for games streaming on ESPN+ were not released.</small>
Writing for the Courier-Journal, C. L. Brown gave the revamped league a positive review, remarking that "there's real talent here" and that there was "nothing gimmicky about" the overall product despite the rule changes; he also noted that the brisk weather gave the game an authentic autumn-like feel.