Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on October 27, 2025 under Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL)

BASEBALL

American Association: The independent American Association announced its 2026 season schedule will feature the same 12 teams and six-team East and West divisional alignment as last season. Each team will play 100 games from May 14 through September 7, 2026.

Carolina League: The Charleston (SC) RiverDogs of the Single-A Carolina League filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against a company called Riverdog Moving LLC that was formed in 2022. The suit alleges unauthorized use of the 'Riverdog' name and a similar color scheme that the team trademarked in 1995. The team is seeking to stop the use of the name along with monetary damages.

Mid-America League: The developmental MAL, which completed its 2025 season with six teams, four in Texas and one each in Arkansas and Missouri, mostly comprised of collegiate players and some former professional players, announced its new Beaumont (TX) expansion team will be called the Beaumont Oil Barons when it starts in the 2026 season. A new team called the Fort Scott (KS) Dragoons and a yet-to-be-named team in Nacogdoches (TX) are also set to join in 2026 as the league looks to grow to ten teams.

Pioneer League: The independent Pioneer League's new Long Beach (CA) expansion team has narrowed the six potential nicknames to the final three: the Long Beach Coast, Long Beach Parrots and Long Beach Regulators. Fan voting will take place through October 29, 2025, and the official team name will be announced in January 2026. The league's new Modesto (CA) expansion team has selected 6 potential nicknames from over 1000 fan submissions. The finalists include the Modesto 99ers, Modesto Bombers, Modesto Glow Riders, Modesto Graffiti, Modesto Harvesters and Modesto Monster Trucks. The Modesto Cruisers was the most popular suggestion but that name was taken be a local amateur soccer team called the Cruizers FC of the men's National Premier Soccer League. Fan voting will run through November 7 with the team's name to be announced on November 10.

South Atlantic League: The Winston-Salem (NC) Dash of the High-A SAL announced it will play select games in the 2026 season under the alternate identity of the Carolina Reapers. The name is a tribute to the world's second-spiciest pepper known as the Carolina Reaper.

Women's Professional Baseball League: The proposed new WPBL announced its inaugural 2026 season will be played with four teams representing the markets of Boston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco. All of the WPBL's 2026 games will be played at a neutral site that will be announced in the future.

BASKETBALL

American Basketball Association: The semi-pro ABA started its 2025-26 season last weekend with 101 teams playing a schedule that runs through March 7, 2026. Teams are aligned in four regions (Central, East, South and West) and each with two conferences (Alpha and Beta) that are each further split into two divisions. The league also has a 21-team "At Large" Division consisting of potential future teams and non-league teams that will play various ABA teams during the season.

National Basketball Association: The NBA started its 2025-26 season this week with the same 30 teams and league alignment as last season. Each team will play 82 games through April 12, 2026. Included in each team's schedule will be games played as part of the in-season tournament called the Emirates NBA Cup 2025 that will have teams aligned in six five-team groups. Each team will play at least four games, one against each team in its group, as part of group-play (October 31 to November 28). Eight teams will move on to the single-elimination Knockout Rounds that include quarterfinals, semi-finals and championship games in December.

FOOTBALL

Continental Football League: The proposed new outdoor professional 11-on-11 CoFL announced the San Antonio Toros as the name of the league's third of eight teams that are planning to start in the inaugural 2026 season, which will run from mid-May to early July. A team called the San Antonio Toros played in the final 1969 season of an earlier version of the CoFL (1965-69) and continued playing in other minor leagues until 1975. The new San Antonio Toros will be placed in the four-team South Division with the previously announced Texas Syndicate (Austin). The Ohio Valley Ironmen was previously announced as one of the teams in the four-team North Division. The CoFL also announced it will implement modified Canadian Football League rules call the "Continental Shift" for the fourth quarter of all games to include three-down football and a shortened 20-second play clock.

Championship Football Association: The proposed new indoor CFA, which plans to start playing 9-on-9 indoor football in 2026 with no dasher boards, announced two new Texas-based teams called the Midland Mustangs and the Odessa Owls will join the previously announced Texas-based Wolfforth Warriors and Abilene Bighorns in the league's Big South West Conference. The CFA also announced the Scranton (PA) Shockwave as a new team that will join the previously announced CNY Blue Devils (Syracuse) in the NorthEast Conference.

European Football Alliance: The Rhein Fire (Germany), which is one of the ten teams that left the American-style football league called the European League of Football (ELF) to join the new EFA, announced the team will be changing its name as part of the move to the new league in 2026. The ELF is threatening legal action against their former teams for breach of contract by moving to the EFA.

HOCKEY

National Junior Hockey League: Canada's independent NJHL recently started its 2025-26 season with six teams based in the province of Alberta and each team playing 24 games through December 21, 2025. The league had eight teams last season but the Vulcan Rampage, Northern Alberta Lightning (Mayerthorpe) and the Lac La Biche Lakers, which were renamed Lac La Biche Islanders, jumped to the new Alberta Elite Junior Hockey League. The league added the new Athabasca Rivermen, while the Gibbons Pioneers relocated to become the Redwater Rebels.

Professional Women's Hockey League: The PWHL introduced the team jerseys and colors for its two 2025-26 expansion teams in Vancouver and Seattle but official team names and logos are still to be announced prior to the start of the season on November 21, 2025. The team names and logos will be incorporated into the uniforms for the 2026-27 season.

United States Premier Hockey League: The Jacksonville-based Bold City Battalion, which started the 2025-26 season with teams in the Florida Division of the junior-level USPHL's Tier-III Premier Conference and the developmental Elite Conference, have been dropped from their schedules after playing only six Premier Conference games and three Elite Conference games. The league's new Alberta Division recently started playing its 2025-26 season with only five of six teams, as the Bassano Beavers have dropped out before playing a game.

Western Hockey League: The 23-team major-junior WHL announced the proposed addition of a 2026-27 expansion team in Chilliwack (British Columbia) will be pushed back to the 2027-28 season as the league finalizes negotiations with a potential team owner. The new team will displace the current Chilliwack Chiefs of the independent Junior-A British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL). The BCHL team was supposed to leave after this season but it could stay another season with the delay in the arrival of the WHL team.

SOCCER

National Soccer League: The proposed new NSL is trying to get off the ground operating under a festival-style touring model with a winter and spring season using college stadiums in the United States. The league is planning its first Soccer Festival at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in early 2026 leading up to the FIFA World Cup Finals. The NSL will start as a single-entity owning all teams before eventually selling franchises under licensed names. The league is trying to acquire trademark rights to historic team names, such as the Los Angeles Aztecs, Washington Diplomats, Atlanta Chiefs and Chicago Sting, from the original North American Soccer League.

Major Arena Soccer League 2: The MASL2 recently finalized its 2025-26 season schedule and alignment that will feature 17 teams aligned in a five-team East Division, a five-team Central Division and a seven-team West Division. Each team will play a 12-game schedule within its division from December 6, 2025, through mid-April 2026. The league had 16 teams last season but lost 8 teams and added 9 teams. The St. Louis Ambush 2, Wisconsin Conquerors (Marshfield), San Diego Sockers 2, Chihuahua Savage II, Empire Jets, New Mexico Runners (Rio Rancho), Baltimore Arsenal and Muskegon Risers, who moved down to the MASL3, did not return. The league added teams called the Asunción de Mexico City, Guadalajara Mariachis FC, Soccer Central Black Hawks FC (Watsonville, CA), Soles de Sonora (Hermosillo, Mexico), Texas Spurs (Allen), FC Baltimore 1729, the returning Iowa Raptors FC (Cedar Rapids) that sat out the 2024-25 season, the returning Omaha Kings FC that played the past three seasons (2022-25) in the Major League Indoor Soccer, and the Harrisburg Heat (Hershey) from last season's MASL. The league's Salisbury (MD) Steaks will play only a road schedule due to arena issues. The FC Baltimore 1729 and United Elite Krajisnik FC (Utica, NY) will play all six home games as doubleheaders with their respective MASL affiliates, the Baltimore Blast and the Utica City FC.

USL League One (United Soccer League): After playing five seasons (2021-25) in the pre-professional USL League Two, the Fort Wayne FC has changed its crest and colors and will be known as the Fort Wayne Football Club as it moves to the Division-III professional USL League One and a new stadium for the 2026 season. The Temecula FC Quails (California) have begun the application process to join the USL League One. The team was originally announced as a participant in the National Independent Soccer Association's NISA Pro Cup tournament but decided to drop out of the tournament and NISA Pro. The team played the 2025 spring season in NISA's amateur-level NISA Nation and is finishing out the year in the NISA Nation's 2025 fall season.

USL League Two (United Soccer League): The men's pre-professional USL League Two announced the addition of the Bethesda (MD) Soccer Club, or the Bethesda SC, and the Lubbock (TX) Matadors SC for the 2026 season. Lubbock played the past four seasons (2022-25) in the amateur-level National Premier Soccer League.

OTHER

TGL Golf: The men's team-based indoor TGL Golf league, which had six teams playing all matches at a 2,000-seat custom-built virtual indoor golf course simulator at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens (FL) for its inaugural season earlier this year, announced it will return for a second season at the SoFi Center with the same six teams each playing five matches from December 28, 2025, through March 3, 2026, followed by playoffs. The TGL Golf recently announced that the Detroit-based Motor City Golf Club will be added as an expansion team for the league's third season in 2027.

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.

Professional Women's Hockey League Stories from October 27, 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.