Photo credit: shutterstock/Adam McCullough

The 2026 UFL season will look totally different than the previous UFL/XFL season of the past. The announcement was made on Tuesday that teams in Orlando, Columbus, and Louisville will be part of an 8-team League when the season begins next spring. The Texas teams in Houston will be called the Gamblers, while the Arlington Renegades will be called the Dallas Renegades and will play in Frisco, Texas.

The move marks a new chapter and a new approach for the UFL, which formed from the merger of the XFL and USFL. The League made some of the most difficult decisions to move teams in Michigan, Memphis, and San Antonio out of their cities to establish what they described as a new vision by entering untapped markets with strong sports traditions. Mike Repole, an entrepreneur who co-owns the UFL alongside a consortium that includes Fox, ESPN, Dwayne Johnson, and others, bought into the league this past summer, determined that there needed to be a new approach if they’re going to survive as a Spring Football League.

“You can’t play [spring football] in a 65,000-seat stadium,” he says. “You get 15,000 in that stadium and it’s empty. It just doesn’t look right, it doesn’t feel right, and it doesn’t show right. The quality of football was high, but when I flick on ESPN or Fox and I see 10,000 fans, I feel like it’s a COVID game.”

Virtually all teams will be playing in a soccer-specific stadium, except for the St. Louis Battlehawks and the Birmingham Stallions. This move is to create a more authentic and energetic atmosphere that resonates better on TV. The strategy aligns to build a strong, fan-driven foundation for the league by focusing on smaller crowds in “true football cities” with deep sports roots. The League also announced that it will not be divided into two conferences in 2026. After the merger, the teams were split into an XFL conference and a USFL conference. The UFL will begin play on Friday, March 27, the draft along with schedule will be release at a future date.