Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on November 3, 2025 under Pioneer League (PL)
BASEBALL
Mexican-Pacific League: Mexico's professional winter-season Mexican-Pacific League, or Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico, started its 2025-26 season last month and again has ten teams aligned in a single-table format. There were two changes since last season. The Sultanes de Monterrey were sold and relocated to become the Tepic-based Jaguares de Nayarit. The Mayos de Navajoa relocated to the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson (AZ) to become the league's first non-Mexican team that is currently listed as the Tucson Baseball Team until a name is chosen. Each team will play 68 games in a two-part regular season that runs through December 30, 2025, follow by playoffs.
Pioneer League: The ownership of the independent Pioneer League's Rocky Mountain Vibes, based in Colorado Springs (CO), announced the team has ceased operations and will not be part of the 2026 season. The Vibes, which were the relocated Helena (MT) Brewers, joined the then affiliated Advanced Rookie level Pioneer League for the 2019 season after the Triple-A Pacific Coast League's Colorado Springs Sky Sox moved to San Antonio. The Pioneer League became an independent league when Minor League Baseball was reorganized for the 2021 season. The Pioneer League's Northern Colorado Owlz (Windsor) resigned from the league in June of the 2025 season and a temporary league-operated team called the Colorado Springs Sky Sox was created to complete the Owlz' 2025 schedule and shared the Vibes' ballpark. The future of that franchise is uncertain as is that of the league's Grand Junction (CO) Jackalopes team that announced plans in September to relocate from Colorado.
Prospect League: The summer-collegiate Prospect League's new Kokomo (IN) team will be called the Kokomo Creek Chubs when it starts playing in the 2026 season. The city had a previous Prospect League team called the Kokomo Jackrabbits that moved to the summer-collegiate Northwoods League for the 2019 season and was dropped from that league after the 2024 season.
Southern Winter League: The free agent developmental SWL is planning to restart with a 2026 winter-spring season featuring six Arizona-based teams called the Buckeye Yellow Sox, Chandler Samurai, Phoenix Maples, Sedona Warriors, Tucson Pistoleros and Yuma Datileros. The SWL held a short fall season in September 2023 with teams called the Yellow Sox, Samurai and Datileros playing all games in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora (Mexico). The league has since moved to Arizona and recently fielded a league-operated Team USA that played a September exhibition schedule in Sinoloa (Mexico) against teams from the professional Mexican-Pacific League.
Texas Collegiate League: The summer-collegiate TCL announced it will expand to eight teams for the 2026 season with the addition of two Texas-based teams called the Abilene Flying Bison and the Sherman Shadowcats that played the past two seasons (2024-25) in the summer-collegiate Mid-America League.
BASKETBALL
Basketball Super League: The minor professional BSL announced its 2025-26 season will be played with only five teams starting in late December and each team playing a 26-game schedule. Of the eight teams from last season, only four teams are returning, the three Ontario-based teams called the Kitchener-Waterloo Titans, Sudbury FIVE, and Windsor Express, along with the Lake Erie Jackals, who operated as the Jamestown (NY) Jackals last season and were recently renamed in a move to Erie (PA). The Montreal Toundra will be the BSL's fifth team and return after sitting out the 2024-25 season. Last season's Pontiac (MI) Pharaohs, London Lightning (Ontario), Glass City Wranglers (Toledo) and Newfoundland Rogues (St. John's) will not return for 2025-26. The Glass City and Newfoundland teams are moving back to the associated semi-pro The Basketball League where these teams had previously played before joining the BSL. The Pontiac Pharaohs have apparently folded and the London Lightning decided to drop out of the BSL for the upcoming season and their return is uncertain. The BSL president stated that if the Lightning do not return the league will add a London-based team for the 2026-27 season, either under new ownership or as a league-operated team.
Athletes Unlimited - Pro Basketball: The women's Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball will return to Nashville for the fifth season of its four-week professional basketball competition with four teams playing a four-week schedule at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium from February 4 through March 1, 2025. The 5-on-5 competition will feature a total of 40 players, many of which are from the Women's National Basketball Association. Players are scored through individual and team statistics. The top four performers each week become captains and select teams for the following week. The one player with the highest score is selected as the individual AU Pro Basketball Champion. The previous seasons were held in Nashville (2025), Dallas (2023 and 2024) and Las Vegas (2022).
FOOTBALL
American 7 Football League: The semi-pro A7FL, which plays outdoor full-contact 7-on-7 football with players wearing no helmets or hard pads, announced its 2026 season will run from March 15 through May 7, 2026. The league also announced expansion into Georgia with the addition of a new team called the Atlanta Inferno.
The Arena League: The 7-on-7 TAL plans to add a new team in Memphis for the 2026 season. The league operated with six teams last season but lost the Duluth (MN) Harbor Monsters to the Arena Football One as the renamed Minnesota Monsters. The TAL wants to have eight teams in 2026 so two more new teams could still be announced.
Professional Independent Football League: The proposed new PIFL announced a team called the Arkansas Valor has been added for the league's inaugural season that will start in May 2026.
HOCKEY
American Hockey League: The AHL's Bridgeport (CT) Islanders, the affiliate of the National Hockey League's New York Islanders, are playing every Saturday home game this season as the Bridgeport Sound Tigers to honor the team's original name when it entered the league in 2001. The team was purchased by the New York Islanders in 2004 and changed to the Bridgeport Islanders for the 2021-22 season. The AHL's Cleveland Monsters will play a game in April 2026 as the Cleveland Polish Boys in a tribute to the name of a Cleveland sandwich featuring kielbasa sausage, French fries, barbecue sauce and coleslaw.
Alberta Elite Junior Hockey League: The four-team independent AEJHL has disbanded after only a few weeks of its inaugural 2025-26 season. The league's Hinton Canadians and Northern Alberta Lightning (Mayerthorpe) have moved to the independent National Junior Hockey League (NJHL); the Onion Lake Cree Nation Scouts are now listed in the Alberta Division of the junior-level United States Premier Hockey League's Tier-III Premier Conference; and the Lac La Biche Islanders were supposed to cease playing based on a restraining order obtained by the NJHL, where the team played last season as the Lac La Biche Lakers.
Professional Women's Hockey League: The PWHL stated that an arena being proposed in Ottawa for the league's Ottawa Charge would be too small with a total capacity of 6,600 for hockey and not financially viable. The team's older current arena seats 9,500 and the average per-game attendance last season was 5,775 with a weekend-game average of 8,348. The league wants to work with the city on the issue before considering relocation.
SOCCER
Western Indoor Soccer League: The amateur-level WISL started its 2025-26 season this weekend with its Men's Division in action featuring the same seven teams as last season. Each team will play 12 games through February 21, 2026. The WISL Women's Division will feature the same four teams as last season with each team playing a six-game schedule from January 2 through February 7, 2026.
WPSL Pro (Women's Premier Soccer League): The proposed Division-II professional WPSL Pro league, which plans to start playing in 2027 and currently lists 15 committed teams, announced the Connecticut Soccer Group has agreed to terms to bring a team to Bridgeport (CT) for the league's second season in 2028, but that is contingent on construction of a proposed new soccer stadium.
USL Championship (United Soccer League): The Sporting Club Jacksonville, or Sporting JAX, confirmed its new men's team will start playing in the Division-II professional USL Championship for the 2026 season. The team will play at the University of North Florida's 9,400-seat Hodges Stadium, which is currently the home of the Sporting JAX women's team in the USL's Division-I professional Gainbridge Super League. The club plans to build a new 15,000-seat soccer stadium for both teams. The club also operates pre-professional teams in the men's USL League Two and the women's USL W-League. Another Jacksonville-based team called the Jacksonville Armada FC, which operates an Under-23 team in the amateur-level National Premier Soccer League, is currently in the process of an ownership change. The Jacksonville Armada FC plans to place an unaffiliated independent team in Major League Soccer's Division-III MLS NEXT Pro league in 2027 and the team is working on building a new 8.000-seat downtown stadium for the team.
USL League Two (United Soccer League): After completing its first season in the men's Division-III professional USL League One, the Texoma FC (Sherman, TX) announced plans to a add a new developmental men's team in the pre-professional USL League Two.
USL W-League (United Soccer League): Two teams in the men's pre-professional USL League Two have secured rights to women's teams in the USL W-League for the 2026 season. The Portland (OR) Bangers FC announced their women's team will play in the W-League's Northwest Division, while the Vermont Green FC (Burlington) will operate a W-League team contingent on the league organizing a new Northeast Division with at least five teams.
OTHER
Major League Volleyball: The new women's professional indoor MLV announced its inaugural 2026 season will feature eight teams each playing 28 matches from January 8 through May 3, 2026. The MLV was originally conceived as a new league created by the ownership of the Omaha Supernovas team that played in the eight-team Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF) in the 2025 season. The MLV merged with the PVF this summer but only seven of the eight 2025 PVF teams will be part of the 2026 MLV season since the Vegas Thrill (Las Vegas) team will sit out while seeking new ownership. A new Dallas expansion team, which was under development by the PVF, will join the new MVP in 2026 as the eighth team called Dallas Pulse (Frisco, TX).
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.
Pioneer League Stories from November 3, 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.
