Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on December 22, 2025 under League One Volleyball (LOVB)
BASEBALL
Pioneer League: The independent Pioneer League announced its 2026 season will feature 12 teams each playing a 96-game schedule from May 19 through September 6, 2026. The league had 12 teams last season but the Rocky Mountain Vibes (Colorado Springs), Grand Junction (CO) Jackalopes and the league-operated Colorado Springs Sky Sox, which completed the 2025 schedule of the Northern Colorado Owlz (Windsor) team that dropped out during the season, will not return. The Grand Junction Jackalopes announced plans to relocate to another market and have been replaced by a yet-to-be-named travel-only team in 2026. The Pioneer League added two California-based expansion teams called the Modesto Roadsters (originally announced as Glow Riders) and a yet-to-be-named team in Long Beach for the 2026 season
Futures Collegiate Baseball League: The summer-collegiate FCBL announced its 2026 season schedule that will feature seven teams each playing a 60-game schedule from May 27 through August 8, 2026. All six teams from the 2025 season will return and the league added an expansion team called the Lowell (MA) Spinners for 2026.
BASKETBALL
CIBACOPA (Circuito de Baloncesto de la Costa del Pacifico): The Mexican professional men's CIBACOPA, or Pacific Coast Basketball League, announced its 2026 season will start on February 14 with 11 teams. All ten teams from last season will return and the league added a new team called the Toros Laguna, based in Torreón, Coahuila. Other teams include the Angeles de la Ciudad de Mexico (Mexico City), Astros de Jalisco (Guadalajara, Jalisco), Caballeros de Culiacan (Sinaloa), Frayles de Guasave (Sinaloa), Halcones de Ciudad Obregon (Sonora), Ostioneros de Guaymas (Sonora), Pioneros de Los Mochis (Sinaloa), Rayos de Hermosillo (Sonora), Venados de Mazatlan, (Sinaloa) and the Zonkeys de Tijuana (Baja California).
Women's National Basketball Association: The owner of the National Basketball League's Houston Rockets is reported to be in meaningful discussions with the WNBA about purchasing the league's Connecticut Sun franchise and moving the team from Uncasville to Houston where it could become the reincarnation of a previous WNBA team called the Houston Comets that played from 1997 through the 2008 season. The league has blocked potential offers from groups looking to move the team to Boston or Hartford.
FOOTBALL
Arena Indoor Football: The Tyler (TX) Crude, which was announced in September as a 2026 expansion team in the AIF, is not listed as a current team and its future in the league is doubtful. In October, the AIF announced the 2026 schedule for five teams in the Northern Division but a proposed Southern Division that was to include the Tyler Crude and Odessa (TX) Drillers has not developed. The AIF lists the Odessa Drillers as a sixth team but the league recently announced the team will play an independent schedule in 2026.
Professional Independent Football League: The proposed outdoor PIFL recently posted a timeline for its inaugural 2026 season that will start in May with ten teams each playing an eight-game schedule through mid-July. The PIFL stated teams will play crossover games against teams from other professional leagues. There has been no final list of participating teams but some of the previously mentioned PIFL teams include the American National (Georgia), Arkansas Valor, Carolina Impact (Wilson, NC), Florida Bucks, Florida Sharks, Florida Smoke, Kentucky Stampede, Michigan Eagles (Detroit), Northeast Arkansas (NEA) Galaxy (Paragould) and South Carolina Bobcats
Winter Indoor Football: The Brownsville Chiefs team that played some games as part of the 2025 fall-season United States Arena League is reported to be joining the fall-season WIF in 2026 as the Pittsburgh Chiefs.
HOCKEY
American Hockey League: To honor the history of the railroad in northeast Pennsylvania, the AHL's Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (PA) Penguins will play a game in April 2026 of this season as the Steamtown Gandy Dancers. The nickname refers to early railroad laborers who were responsible for laying the steel railroad tracks.
ECHL: The ECHL's Portland-based Maine Mariners played a game last weekend as the Portland Pirates to honor the former American Hockey League team that played 22 seasons (1993-2016) in the city. The Mariners will rebrand as the Portland Pirates for one other game on January 17, 2026. The ECHL's Cincinnati Cyclones will partner with the local Skyline Chili restaurants for a game in February 2026 and play as the Cincinnati 3-Ways in a tribute to Skyline's 3-Way chili, which is spaghetti covered in chili and topped with a mound of cheddar cheese.
Federal Prospects Hockey League: The minor professional FPHL's expansion team to be based in Thief River Falls (MN) announced it will be called the Minnesota Northern Lights when it starts playing in the 2026-27 season. The FPHL will play a two-game regular season series between the Indiana Sentinels (Columbus) and the Topeka Scarecrows in Thief River Falls on March 27 and March 28, 2027.
United States Hockey League: As part of a "Birds Aren't Real" promotion, the Madison (WI) Capitols of the Tier-I junior-level USHL rebranded to the Surveillance Swans for a game on December 12, 2025. The promotion and name change came from a 2017 online hoax that claimed the U.S. government had replaced all living birds with robots that spy on people around the world.
SOCCER
USL League Two (United Soccer League): The men's pre-professional USL League Two announced the Real Colorado (Centennial) and Port City FC (Wilmington, NC) will join for the 2026 season and both teams will also operate new women's teams in the pre-professional USL W-League in 2026. The Port City FC was part of the 2025 National Premier Soccer League. The recently announced new Lorain County (Avon, OH) team in the USL League Two will be called the Lorain County Leviathan when it starts in 2026 and plays home games at the ballpark used by the Lake Erie Crushers of the independent Frontier League.
National Premier Soccer League: The men's Tier-1 national amateur NPSL recently announced the establishment of the new NPSL-RL that will be a nationwide network of regional amateur leagues under the NPSL umbrella. The NPSL-RL will play spring and fall seasons and allow teams to develop into NPSL Tier-I teams. The Great Lakes Alliance was announced as one of the first NPSL-RL leagues.
National Women's Soccer League: The NWSL's new 2026 expansion team called the Boston Legacy FC will play select games during its inaugural season at Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket (RI) since the team's home in Foxborough (MA) will be used next summer for several games in the men's FIFA World Cup 2026. Centreville Band stadium is home to the Rhode Island FC of the men's United Soccer League's USL Championship league.
OTHER
Arena Lacrosse League: The men's amateur winter-season indoor development ALL recently started its 2025-26 season with the same eight-team Ontario-based ALL East and four-team British Columbia-based ALL West as last season. The ALL East plays a 14-game schedule from December 4, 2025, through March 15, 2026, and the ALL West plays a 12-game schedule from November 5, 2025, through January 17, 2026. The ALL's women division known as the WALL has the Ontario-based WALL East with the same six teams playing from January 4 through March 7, 2026, and the British Columbia-based WALL West with the same six teams each playing nine games from November 9, 2025, through January 17, 2026.
League One Volleyball (LOVB): The women's LOVB (pronounced LOVE) professional indoor volleyball league announced a LOVB San Francisco team will be added as an expansion team for the league's third season in 2027. The competing women's indoor league known as Major League Volleyball recently announced it will also be adding a new Northern California team in 2027. The LOVB recently announced new LOVB Los Angeles and LOVB Minnesota teams will also start in the 2027 season. The LOVB pro league will start its second season next month and feature the same six teams as last season with each team playing 20 matches from January 7 through April 4, 2026. Last season's LOVB Omaha team came under new ownership and was renamed the LOVB Nebraska.
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.
League One Volleyball Stories from December 22, 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.
