Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on October 13, 2025 under United Football League (UFL)
BASEBALL
Arizona Fall League: Major League Baseball's AzFL started its 2025 season this week with the same six teams as last season and each playing a 30-game schedule through November 12 at MLB spring training facilities around the Phoenix area. Each AzFL team consists of prospects from five different MLB teams: the Glendale Desert Dogs (Braves, White Sox, Dodgers, Cardinals, Blue Jays), Mesa Solar Sox (Athletics, Cubs, Marlins, Yankees, Rays), Peoria Javelinas (Orioles, Reds, Twins, Padres, Mariners), Salt River Rafters (Diamondbacks, Nationals, Rockies, Twins, Yankees), Scottsdale Scorpions (Tigers, Astros, Mets, Giants, Nationals), and Surprise Saguaros (Guardians, Royals, Brewers, Phillies, Rangers).
Frontier League: The independent Frontier League announced its 2026 season schedule will feature the same 18 teams and alignment as last season with teams each playing 102 games from May 7 through September 6, 2026.
Northwoods League: The summer-collegiate Northwoods League's new team in Richmond (IN) announced it will be called the Richmond Flying Mummies when the team starts playing in the 2026 season. The name celebrates aviation's Wright Brothers who spent some childhood years in Richmond and two Egyptian mummies housed at sites in Richmond. The city was home to previous summer-collegiate teams called the Richmond River Rats (2009-15) and the Richmond Jazz (2016-23).
Pacific Coast League: The Triple-A Pacific Coast League's Round Rock Express (Austin area) was named the 2025 winner of Minor League Baseball's Copa de la Diversión (Copa) with its rebranding as the Round Rock Chupacabras for three games during the 2025 season. The 2025 Copa featured 94 of the 120 affiliated teams temporarily rebranding to honor the Latino communities in their markets. The Round Rock Chupacabras name was selected over 11 other finalists.
Major League Baseball: The MLB's former Oakland Athletics, who were known as "The Athletics ¬Â or the "The A's ¬Â in 2025 while temporarily based out of a Triple-A stadium in West Sacramento, will add "Sacramento ¬Â to their uniforms for their 2026 Saturday home games as part of a "Sacramento Saturdays ¬Â promotion. The team will continue to be based in the Sacramento market at least through the 2027 season as the team waits for its new stadium to be completed in Las Vegas.
BASKETBALL
Maximum Basketball League: The men's semi-pro MBL started its 2025-26 season last month with 38 teams in 8 regional divisions across the United States. Each team will play 12-14 games through February 6, 2026. The MBL is trying to start affiliated international leagues in Peru and Ghana.
Upshot League: The proposed new women's professional basketball league known as the Upshot League, which plans to start an inaugural season in May 2026 with four teams in the southeastern United States, announced the newly named Charlotte Crown and Greensboro (NC) Groove will join the Jacksonville Waves and the Savannah Steel as the league's first-season teams.
FOOTBALL
American Arena League 2: The professional developmental AAL2 announced the Ohio Legends (Columbus, OH) have been added for the 2026 season. The Legends are currently playing in the fall-season United States Arena League.
International Arena League: The proposed new IAL announced two of its four North America Conference teams will be called the Las Vegas Rockers and the Cincinnati Slingers.
American Indoor Football: The AIF announced the 2026 teams and schedule for a five-team Northern Division while details on the 2026 Southern Division are still to be announced. The Northern Division will feature the Cedar Rapids (IA) Titans, renamed from last season's Cedar Rapids River Kings, the Northern Michigan Muskies (Traverse City), from last season's relocated Coralville (IA) Chaos, the returning West Michigan Ironmen (Muskegon), the new Wyoming Cavalry (Gillette) and the new Pennsylvania Union partial-schedule travel-only team. The four full-schedule teams will play seven to eight games from January 30 through April 30, 2026. The AIF also announced the addition of the Odessa (TX) Drillers expansion team, which is expected to be part of the 2026 Southern Division along with the previously announced Tyler (TX) Crude.
European Football Alliance: At least 10 of the 16 teams that participated in the 2025 season of the European League of Football (ELF) have officially committed to the new EFA that plans to start in 2026. The EFA could still add some other teams before its proposed start. With the loss of these teams, the future of the ELF is uncertain.
United Football League: The UFL will replace the Memphis Showboats, Michigan Panthers (Detroit) and San Antonio Brahmas in the 2026 season with new teams called the Columbus (OH) Aviators, Louisville Kings and Orlando Storm as the league moves teams to smaller-capacity soccer stadiums in those markets. The league's Arlington (TX) Renegades will move to Frisco (TX) where the team will play at the home of Major League Soccer's FC Dallas and will be renamed the Dallas Renegades. The UFL's Houston Roughnecks will move to the home of Major League Soccer's Houston Dynamo FC and will be renamed the Houston Gamblers. The UFL's three other teams, the St. Louis Battlehawks, Birmingham Americans and D.C. Defenders will return to keep the league at eight teams for 2026. The two-conference alignment will be eliminated and teams will be aligned in a single-table format.
National Football League - Flag Football: With the addition of flag football to the 2028 Summer Olympics, the NFL announced plans to create both men's and women's professional flag football leagues in the next two years.
HOCKEY
American Hockey League: The 32-team minor professional AHL, which has each team serving as an affiliate for a team in the 32-team National Hockey League, started its 2025-26 season this weekend with the same teams and alignment as last season. Each team will play 72 games through April 19, 2026.
Federal Prospects Hockey League: The minor league FPHL started its 2025-26 season this weekend and again has 14 teams aligned in 7-team Continental and Empire divisions. Of the 14 teams from last season, the Danville (IL) Dashers, HC Venom (Poughkeepsie, NY) and Motor City Rockers (Fraser, MI) did not return but the league added new teams called the Topeka Scarecrows, Indiana Sentinels (Columbus) and the Pee Dee Pride (Florence, SC) for the 2025-26 season. The Mississippi Sea Wolves were renamed the Biloxi Breakers and the Carolina Thunderbirds (Winston-Salem, NC) were renamed the Twin City Thunderbirds as part of ownership changes. Each team will play 56 games through April 11, 2026.
National Hockey League: The NHL started its 2025-26 season this week with the same 32 teams and alignment as last season with each team playing an 82-game schedule April 16, 2026. The only change was the Utah Hockey Club being rebranded as the Utah Mammoth. The NHL will take an 18-day break in February 2026 for the Olympic Winter Games.
Ligue Nord-Americaine de Hockey: The Quebec-based minor professional LNAH, or North American Hockey League, recently started its 2025-26 season with the same eight teams as last season and aligned in a single-table format. Each team will play a 36-game schedule through March 8, 2026.
Greater Metro Hockey League: Canada's independent Junior-A GMHL started its 2025-26 season last month with a six-team North Division and an eight-team South Division. Each team will play 40 games through February 15, 2026. The league started last season with 16 teams but lost 2 teams. The Ontario-based Almaguin Spartans shut down during last season after playing only eight games and will sit out this season after an off-season ownership change. The Quebec-based Le Becard Senneterre decided to drop out last month just prior to the start of the 2025-26 season.
SOCCER
Major Arena Soccer League Women (MASLW): The MASLW, which is affiliated with the men's MASL, announced a Dallas area team called the Texas Lone Star SC has been added for the 2025-26 season.
Major League Indoor Soccer: The men's MLIS announced the addition of a team called FC Indiana to its new amateur-level MLISX (Major League Indoor Soccer-Extended) for the 2025-26 season. The team will be based in Lafayette but will play games in Fort Wayne.
USL League One (United Soccer League): A group called Space Coast Pro Soccer is working to bring a men's USL professional soccer team, in either the Division-II Championship League or the Division-III USL League One, to Brevard County (FL). The group wants to build a new soccer stadium and eventually add a women's professional soccer team.
USL League Two (United Soccer League): The men's pre-professional USL League Two announced the addition of a team called the Jackson (TN) Boom for the 2026 season.
OTHER
Major League Rugby: After losing 4 of its 11 teams since the end of the 2025 season, the men's professional rugby union (15-player) MLR announced it will return for the 2026 season and currently lists 7 remaining teams. The Miami Sharks, NOLA Gold (New Orleans) and Houston Sabercats announced they would not participate in the 2026 season, while the Rugby FC Los Angeles and San Diego Legion merged to create the new California Legion. Along with the California Legion, the other remaining teams include the Anthem Rugby Carolina (Charlotte), Chicago Hounds, New England Free Jacks (Boston), Old Glory DC (Washington, DC), Seattel Seawolves and Utah Warriors (Salt Lake City).
Dan Krieger is the creator of the Weekly Sports League & Franchise Report, which has been tracking the changes in the sports world's leagues, teams, and nicknames since April 2007.
United Football League Stories from October 13, 2025
- Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report - OSC Original by Dan Krieger
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
