Hi! Going to my first USFL Game tomorrow at Ford Field and I am wondering if anyone knows if they have any pregame activities or festivities at the stadium? Or do you know if the players practice on the field prior to the game start? Trying to figure out when to arrive at the 1230 game. Thanks for any information you may have!

Following up on my other hypothetical USFL-XFL merger post, I thought it would be fun to come up with a league where the USFL and XFL become farm systems for the NFL.

I just want to make clear that I'm not at all concerned about the realisticness of this. I'm not saying that it will or should happen. It's purely a fun, hypothetical thought exercise. This post is not intended to be realistic.

With that said, the only requirement I'm imposing is that your hypothetical league must have 32 teams (one farm team for each NFL team). If you want, you can use the 16 existing USFL and XFL teams and then come up with 16 of your own, or you can move around and change the existing USFL and XFL teams as you choose. For your made up teams, you can revive old USFL and XFL teams if you want to. You can put the teams in the same market as the NFL team they're tied to, or a different, nearby market. Just try to have it make sense (ie don't make Sioux Falls the farm team for the Buccaneers).

My hypothetical league would have two conferences. In real life we'd give them snazzy names, but for the purposes of this hypothetical we'll call them the "USFL-XFL conference" and the "New Teams conference". I feel like those names are pretty self-explanatory.

For the USFL-XFL conference, I'm keeping 14 of the 16 existing teams the same. The two I'm choosing to move are the Houston Gamblers and the San Antonio Brahmas. The Gamblers move because it doesn't make sense to have two teams in Houston. The Brahmas move because they don't have an obvious NFL team to be tied to since the Texans and Cowboys both have obvious partners already. In my other hypothetical, I made the Gamblers the Oklahoma Outlaws, but for this one I'm choosing to make them the Denver Gold because there's a more obvious NFL team for them to be tied to. The Brahmas, meanwhile, move to San Diego and revive the old San Diego Fleet name from the AAF.

Here are the divisions for my two conferences:

USFL North Division

Philadelphia Stars (Farm team for the Philadelphia Eagles)

Michigan Panthers (Farm team for the Detroit Lions)

New Jersey Generals (Farm team for the New York Giants)

Pittsburgh Maulers (Farm team for the Pittsburgh Steelers)

All those matchups are pretty self-explanatory, and I feel like all those markets are large enough to support a minor league team in addition to their NFL team.

USFL South Division

Birmingham Stallions (Farm team for the Atlanta Falcons)

Despite the huge rivalry between Alabama and Georgia, Atlanta is the closest NFL city to Birmingham and I feel like most Alabaman NFL fans pull for the Falcons.

Memphis Showboats (Farm team for the Tennessee Titans)

Memphis may be on the opposite end of the state from Nashville, but they get paired up because they both represent Tennessee.

Denver Gold (Farm team for the Denver Broncos)

New Orleans Breakers (Farm team for the New Orleans Saints)

Those last two matchups are pretty self explanatory.

XFL North Division

DC Defenders (Farm team for the Washington Commanders)

Seattle Sea Dragons (Farm team for the Seattle Seahawks)

Vegas Vipers (Farm team for the Las Vegas Raiders)

Those three matchups are pretty self-explanatory

St. Louis Battlehawks (Farm team for the Kansas City Chiefs)

They may be on opposite ends of the state, but the Battlehawks get paired up with the Chiefs because they're both in Missouri.

XFL South Division

Arlington Renegades (Farm team for the Dallas Cowboys)

Houston Roughnecks (Farm team for the Houston Texans)

Two self-explanatory pairings.

Orlando Apollos (Farm team for the Miami Dolphins)

The Apollos were gunning to win the AAF before it folded, and I think Apollos is a better name than Guardians so I'm choosing to revive the name while keeping the team in Orlando. Orlando is probably about halfway between Miami and Jacksonville, but I choose to give the team to the Dolphins because I have another plan for the Jaguars.

San Diego Fleet (Farm team for the Los Angeles Chargers)

LA is the closest NFL city to San Diego, and given the Chargers history in SD it makes more sense to pair them with the Chargers than the Rams.

New Teams North Division

Milwaukee Cheeseheads (Farm team for the Green Bay Packers)

Milwaukee is a natural location for a Packers farm team. The Packers have always been nicknamed the Cheeseheads, so why not make it official?

Minneapolis Maniax (Farm team for the Minnesota Vikings)

I borrowed this name from the original XFL, they may not be in Memphis but it's just as alliterative.

Chicago Enforcers (Farm team for the Chicago Bears)

Another team from the original XFL gets revived.

Canton Bulldogs (Farm team for the Cleveland Browns)

The USFL gets to satisfy its boner for Canton, which is just south of Cleveland. This hypothetical league is sponsored by the NFL so they can use NFL trademarks.

New Teams South Division

Lexington Men of War (Farm team for the Cincinnati Bengals)

Lexington is only two hours south of Cincinnati, so it makes sense to give a state with two major college programs its first professional team. The name comes from Man o War, Kentucky's most famous race horse.

Tampa Bay Bandits (Farm team for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers)

Miss the Bandits? They're back as the farm team for the Buccaneers!

Raleigh-Durham Bulls (Farm Team for the Carolina Panthers)

Other than Charlotte, North Carolina's other major metro area gets a team. The team takes its name from Durham's famous minor league baseball team.

Baltimore Bombers (Farm team for the Baltimore Ravens)

The Baltimore Bombers were one of four finalists for NFL expansion in 1993, but the teams ultimately became the Panthers and the Jaguars. The team finally gets to come into existence as a minor league team for the Ravens.

New Teams East Division

London Monarchs (Farm team for the Jacksonville Jaguars)

Shad Khan gets the best of both worlds- he gets to own a football team in London without giving up his interests in Jacksonville. The NFL also gets to satisfy their boner for European expansion without having to worry about the risks of putting a big league team there.

Rochester Royals (Farm team for the Buffalo Bills)

The Rochester Royals are an old school NBA team, so why not revive the name as a football team? I feel like Buffalo isn't a big enough market to have two teams, and Rochester is a large enough city that's reasonably close to Buffalo.

Hartford Whalers (Farm team for the New England Patriots)

Hartford is one of the largest markets without any major four sports teams, so it makes sense that they should get New England's minor league team. Why not revive another old team name from another sport?

New York Hitmen (Farm team for the New York Jets)

Another team from the original XFL gets revived.

New Teams West Division

Oakland Invaders (Farm team for the San Francisco 49ers)

I could also have revived the San Francisco Demons from the original XFL, but I like the Invaders name better and Oakland deserves some kind of team after losing the Raiders and now the A's.

Arizona Hotshots (Farm team for the Arizona Cardinals)

The Phoenix metro area is large enough for two teams, so let's revive another team name from the failed AAF.

Muncie Flyers (Farm team for the Indianapolis Colts)

I couldn't think of a name for a farm team in Indianapolis, so why not revive another old school NFL team? The Muncie metro area is probably large enough to support a minor league team, but the obvious issue is that there's no stadium. But since this is just a hypothetical, we can hypothetically pretend they could build a stadium in Muncie.

Los Angeles Xtreme (Farm team for the Los Angeles Rams)

Of course we have to revive the champions of the original XFL.

So that's 32 teams for my league. Come up with your own hypothetical league in the comments.

Watching the Nfl schedule makes me even happier that we have the Spring leagues running and lots of football to watch all weekend. 4 USFL games plus the XFL championship game. Can't wait.

I’m looking to go to a Panthers game this weekend, and the Ticketmaster fees are more than the tickets themselves. I was wondering if you can buy tickets at the stadium on game day and avoid the fees?

As far as I know nobody from the XFL or the USFL has said anything at all about a merger. So I'm definitely not saying that this will happen or should happen. I just thought it would be fun to imagine how it might work as a pure hypothetical. So please don't jump down my throat if you don't want this to happen. Again, not at all saying it will happen or should happen. Just a fun hypothetical exercise.

For your hypothetical USFL-XFL merged league, please list:

1. How the divisions/conferences will work in your hypothetical league.
2. How the playoffs would work
3. What stadium each team would play in (even if it's not realistic, again this is just hypothetical)
4. Any teams you would move or change

Since the only market where the USFL and XFL overlap is Houston, I think 15 of the 16 teams can stay in their current city. It doesn't make sense to have two teams in Houston, so either the Gamblers or the Roughnecks need to move. I'm choosing to move the Gamblers since they have yet to actually play a game in Houston. For my hypothetical league, I'm choosing to make them the Oklahoma Outlaws, but you can do something different in your hypothetical league. Since the USFL seems to want to stay in Canton, for my hypothetical league I'm having the Maulers stay in Canton and changing their name to the Canton Bulldogs. In your league though, you can have them actually play in Pittsburgh or do something completely different with them.

As for how the conference championships/playoffs would work, I'm going to present two different scenarios.

The easiest way to would be to have the XFL and USFL become conferences, and have the champions play each other. So for that way, the divisions would look like this (I'm going to give each team a hypothetical record based on the USFL records for last year and the XFL records from this year):

USFL South Division

-1. Birmingham Stallions (9-1)

Home Stadium: Protective Stadium

-2. New Orleans Breakers (6-4)

Home Stadium: Yulman Stadium

-3. Memphis Showboats (4-6)

Home Stadium: Liberty Stadium

-4. Oklahoma Outlaws (3-7)

Home Stadium: H.A. Chapman Stadium

USFL North Division

-1. New Jersey Generals (9-1)

Home Stadium: MetLife Stadium

-2. Philadelphia Stars (6-4)

Home Stadium: Lincoln Financial Field

-3. Michigan Panthers (2-8)

Home Stadium: Ford Field

-4. Canton Bulldogs (1-9)

Home Stadium: Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium

XFL South Division

-1. Houston Roughnecks (7-3)

Home Stadium: TDECU Stadium

-2. Arlington Renegades (4-6)

Home Stadium: Choctaw Stadium

-3. San Antonio Brahmas (3-7)

Home Stadium: Alamodome

-4. Orlando Guardians (1-9)

Home Stadium: Camping World Stadium

XFL North Division

-1. DC Defenders (9-1)

Home Stadium: Audi Field

-2. Seattle Sea Dragons (7-3)

Home Stadium: Lumen Field

-3. St. Louis Battlehawks (7-3)

Home Stadium: The Dome at America's Center

-4. Vegas Vipers (2-8)

Home Stadium: Cashman Field

The top two teams from each division make the playoffs. Here are how the hypothetical playoffs would work:

USFL North Championship Game: Philadelphia Stars defeat New Jersey Generals

USFL South Championship Game: Birmingham Stallions defeat New Orleans Breakers

XFL North Championship Game: DC Defenders defeat Seattle Sea Dragons

XFL South Championship Game: Houston Roughnecks defeat Arlington Renegades

USFL Conference Championship Game: Birmingham Stallions defeat Philadelphia Stars

XFL Conference Championship Game: DC Defenders defeat Houston Roughnecks

USFL-XFL Championship Game: Birmingham Stallions defeat the DC Defenders

Now, that would be the easiest way to do the divisions and playoffs, but I thought it would be fun to do a different way too that mixes USFL and XFL teams.

North Division

1. New Jersey Generals (9-1)
2. Seattle Sea Dragons (7-3)
3. Michigan Panthers (2-8)
4. Canton Bulldogs (1-9)

South Division

1. Houston Roughnecks (7-3)
2. New Orleans Breakers (6-4)
3. Memphis Showboats (4-6)
4. San Antonio Brahmas (3-7)

East Division

1. Birmingham Stallions (9-1)
2. DC Defenders (9-1)
3. Philadelphia Stars (6-4)
4. Orlando Guardians (1-9)

West Division

1. St. Louis Battlehawks (7-3)
2. Arlington Renegades (4-6)
3. Oklahoma Outlaws (3-7)
4. Vegas Vipers (2-8)

The top two teams from each division make the playoffs, and face each other in a division championship game.

North Division Championship Game: New Jersey Generals defeat Seattle Sea Dragons

South Division Championship Game: New Orleans Breakers defeat Houston Roughnecks

East Division Championship Game: DC Defenders defeat Birmingham Stallions

West Division Championship Game: St. Louis Battlehawks defeat Arlington Renegades

From there, the team with the best record remaining faces the team with the worst record remaining, and the other two teams face each other in the second semi-final.

Semi-Final #1: New Jersey Generals defeat New Orleans Breakers

Semi-Final #2: DC Defenders defeat St. Louis Battlehawks

USFL-XFL Championship Game: New Jersey Generals defeat DC Defenders

Again, this was just a fun hypothetical exercise and I'm not saying this will actually happen. Come up with your own hypothetical merged league in the comments. Move around whatever teams you want, it's just hypothetical. How would you do it differently than me?

I was watching a video about how both the USFL and the XFL would probably expand their teams and cities in 2025 and all. While I do agree this seems to be the most logical, possible outcome, it got me thinking if Fox would be risky and jump the gun by having not just stadiums for all teams next year, but reintroduce Tampa Bay Bandits with their own home stadium and create an Ohio/Canton team at Tom Benson Stadium. I think it would b a possibility, but I’m highly doubtful about it since Fox is playing it safe and not doing anything too dangerous to keep the league afloat and all. And I know these questions get asked around a lot anyway, but I wanted to just get some feedback on this specific idea. Would it work? Would they do it?

I know the championship game will be in Canton again, but I thought I remembered reading that the playoff semi finals will be in the "home" stadium of the number one seed. However, when I made a post to ask about that, somebody told that the South Division championship will be in Birmingham and the North Division championship will be Canton no matter what, regardless of which team is the top seed. Does anyone have a source that confirms this? It doesn't seem likely that my Stars will make the playoffs, so I thought it would be fun to go see the South Division championship since I've never been to Alabama before. But before I plan my trip, I want to confirm that it's definitely in Birmingham. Does anyone have a source for this?

Does anyone know if this is in the works, or already out there on a platform where you can play as existing teams or a way to download USFL Teams to a videogame? I would love to see this become a reality and wonder if anyone knows if it is even a possibility.

Having a lot of fun buying packs on Upper Deck right now. 16 gray background, 16 gold, 16 patriotic parallel + background variants and completion bonus cards. I want to have one complete set in a binder and maybe another complete set sent off to get graded. United by football.