Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on January 5, 2026 under Pecos League (Pecos)
BASEBALL
Pecos League: The independent Pecos League announced its 2026 season schedule will again feature 16 teams but with some changes. Last season's alignment featured a six-team California-based Pacific Division and a ten-team Mountain Division further split into a five-team Mountain North and a five-team Mountain South. The Pacific Division will see the departure of the Monterey (CA) Amberjacks, the addition of a new yet-to-be-named team in Grand Junction (CO), and the addition of the Roswell (NM) Invaders and Tucson Saguaros from the Mountain Division. This will create eight-team Pacific and Mountain divisions that will be further split into four-team Pacific North, Pacific South, Mountain North and Mountain South divisions. The Grand Junction market became available when the Grand Junction Jackalopes of the independent Pioneer League announced plans after the 2025 season to relocate to another market. Originally, the Pecos League listed the team as the Grand Junction Cliff Hangers. The Pecos League's KC Iola Hormigas team, which played 2025 weekday home games in Iola (KS) and only the Sunday home games in Kansas City (MO), announced Iola will be the team's permanent home in 2026 and the team is now listed as the Iola Hormigas. The speculated return of the Austin Weirdos team, which sat out the 2025 season, will not happen in 2026. Each Pecos League team will play 54 games through July 26, 2026, with the Pacific Division teams starting on May 18 and the Mountain Division teams starting on May 26.
BASKETBALL
Basketball Super League: The minor professional BSL started its 2025-26 season this week with five teams each playing a 26-game schedule through March 29, 2026. 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 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 Glass City Wranglers (Toledo), Newfoundland Rogues (St. John's), Pontiac (MI) Pharaohs and London Lightning (Ontario) did not return. 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 2025-26 season and the team's return is uncertain.
Women's National Basketball Association: With negotiations continuing on a new collective bargaining agreement between the WNBA and the players' union known as the Women's National Basketball Players Association, the league has been unable to schedule the expansion draft to stock the new Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire teams that are scheduled to start playing in the 2026 season. The current agreement has been extended to a deadline of January 9, 2026. Last month the player's authorized a strike if the union felt it was necessary in the negotiation process.
FOOTBALL
American Football League Europe: The new professional American-style football league known as the AFLE, which plans to compete with the more-established European League of Football (ELF), has confirmed six of a possible ten teams for its inaugural 2026 season. The AFLE teams included four former ELF teams called the Rhein Fire (Dusseldorf), Berlin Thunder, Panthers Wroclaw (Poland) and Vienna Vikings (Austria), along with the new Alpine Rams (Biel/Bienne, Switzerland) and a new Paris-based team that will challenge the ELF's Paris Musketeers in that market. The new AFLE, which is also branding itself as ¬ÅThe League: Europe ¬Â, is looking to add teams in Italy, England and Monaco, possibly called the Monaco Mariners.
American Indoor Football: The AIF has added the Dickinson (ND) Dragons as an expansion team for the 2027 season.
European League of Football: The American-style professional football ELF, which operated with 16 teams in 2025 and has lost at least 4 teams to the new American Football League Europe, has confirmed 5 teams called the Madrid Bravos, Frankfurt Galaxy, Prague Lions, Raiders Tirol (Austria) and the Paris Musketeers will return for the 2026 season. Other teams will be announced in the near future.
International Football Alliance: The outdoor professional IFA, whose inaugural 2025 summer season was plagued by all teams dropping out before and during the season, announced it will play a 2026 season with six teams each playing a six-game schedule from April 11 through May 16, 2026. Current teams include the Dallas Prime, Fort Worth Drive, San Angelo Stampede, Texas Herd (Longview), Georgia Rebels (New Brunswick) and the Seattle-based Pacific Northwest Football (PNW Football). Missing from the list is the Arkansas Storm that was announced earlier this year as a 2026 expansion team and played an IFA exhibition game against the Dallas Prime in September.
HOCKEY
ECHL: After postponing all games last weekend due to a players' strike, the ECHL and the Professional Hockey Players' Association ratified a new collective bargaining agreement so the league resumed play this week.
Junior Women's Hockey League: The developmental JWHL is midway through its 2025-26 season that features 14 teams in the United States and Canada. This includes eight teams in the U-19 Division and six teams in the U-16 Division. Teams play weekend events from October to March.
Ontario Women's Hockey League: The U-22 Elite OWHL, formerly known as the Provincial Women's Hockey League, is more than halfway through its 2025-26 season that features 25 Ontario-based junior hockey teams each playing a 48-game schedule from September 5, 2025, through March 8, 2026.
Saskatchewan Junior Female Hockey League: The SJFHL is midway through its 2025-26 season that features the same seven teams as last season with teams playing 20 games from October 11, 2025, through March 1, 2026.
SPHL: The SPHL's Evansville (IN) Thunderbolts became the Ohio Valley Riverjacks for two games this weekend as part of a promotion that paid homage to the riverboat casino history in the city.
SOCCER
National Premier Soccer League: The men's elite-level amateur NPSL recently announced teams called the Sun City FC (El Paso) and the Hub City FC Black Roses (Hagerstown, MD) have joined the league for the 2026 season.
United Women's Soccer: The pro-am UWS recently announced teams called the Berber City FC (Chicago) and the Maine Mystics (Lewiston-Auburn) have joined the league for the 2026 season.
Women's Premier Soccer League: The elite amateur-level WPSL recently announced teams called the Vale SC (Middletown, CT), District Elite FC (Washington, DC), Connecticut Rush (North Branford) and Kensington SC (Philadelphia) will join the league for the 2026 season. Vale SC played in the lower-level WPSL-II in 2025.
OTHER
TGL Golf: The men's professional team-based indoor TGL Golf league started its second season this week and features the same six teams as last season playing all matches at a 2,000-seat custom-built virtual indoor golf course simulator at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens (FL). Each team will play five matches through March 3, 2026, followed by playoffs. The TGL Golf announced in 2025 that the Detroit-based Motor City Golf Club will be added as an expansion team for the league's third season in 2027.
Professional Softball League: The new women's PSL is organizing for a start in June 2026 with seven previously independent women's softball teams that include the Atlanta Smoke, Chattanooga Chill, Florida Breeze (Tampa Bay), Florida Heat (Viera), Florida Vibe (Bradenton) and the New York Rise (Long Island). The new league will be going up against the women's professional Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) that started with four teams playing a touring schedule in its inaugural 2025 season last summer. The AUSL plans to move to city-based teams and recently added the independent Oklahoma City Spark as an expansion team for 2026.
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.
Pecos League Stories from January 5, 2026
- 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.
