Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report
by Dan Krieger
Published on January 26, 2026 under United Football League (UFL)
BASEBALL
Canadian Baseball League: Canada's former semi-pro Intercounty Baseball League (IBL), which announced plans to become a full professional independent league starting in 2026 under the Canadian Baseball League (CBL) name, announced its 2026 season schedule last month. All nine 2025 IBL teams based in southern Ontario will comprise the new CBL and will be aligned in a single-table format. Each team will play a 48-game schedule from May 10 through August 30, 2026. The CBL teams include the Barrie Baycats, Brantford Red Sox, Chatham-Kent Barnstormers, Guelph Royals, Hamilton Cardinals, Kitchener Panthers, London Majors, Toronto Maple Leafs and Welland Jackfish.
California Winter League: The developmental showcase CWL, which is the official winter league of the independent Frontier League and is also scouted by other independent summer leagues, started its 2026 season this week with 8 teams each playing 16 games through February 11, 2026, followed by playoffs. All games will again be played at Palm Springs Stadium. The eight teams are aligned in a Canadian Division with the Alberta Grizzly, British Columbia Bombers, Canada A's and Manitoba North Stars, and an American Division with the Oregon Lumberjacks, Palm Springs Chill, Palm Springs Power and Washington Blue Sox.
South Atlantic League: The Hub City Spartanburgers (Spartanburg, SC) of the High-A SAL announced the team will play three games in the 2026 season as the Spartan Regiment, which was the name of a local militia that fought in the Revolutionary War. The league's Bowling Green (KY) Hot Rods will continue the tradition of playing Thursday home games as the Bowling Green Bootleggers during the 2026 season to pay homage to the heritage of bootlegging and bourbon in the state of Kentucky.
United Shore Professional Baseball League: The independent developmental USPBL recently posted its 2026 season schedule that will feature the same four teams as last season to include the Utica Unicorns and Eastside Diamond Hoppers in the East and the Westside Woolly Mammoths and Birmingham-Bloomfield Beavers in the West. Each team will play 45 games from May 15 through September 5, 2026, with all games played at the renamed United Wholesale Mortgage (UWM) Field, formerly Jimmy John's Field, in Utica (MI).
BASKETBALL
American Basketball Association: The men's semi-pro ABA recently announced expansion teams called the Miami Kings, Burlington (VT) Revolution, Waterbury (CT) Sharks and the Carolina Voltage (Winston-Salem, NC) will join the league for the 2026-27 season. The ABA also announced five teams that have been on a temporary hiatus will rejoin the league for the 2026-27 season. These teams include the PG Valor (Prince George County, MD), Baltimore Hawks, Bold City Rattlers (Jacksonville FL), Little Chicago (Johnson City TN), and the North Alabama War Dawgs (Huntsville AL). Also, the ABA has joined the new National Association of Minor Leagues, which wants to become a unified national platform bringing minor sports and leagues under one umbrella.
Women's National Basketball Association: Although the WNBA and its players are still trying to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, the WNBA announced the 2026 season schedule will feature 15 teams each playing 44 games from May 8 through September 24, 2026. The league had 13 teams last season but added the new Toronto Tempo to the Eastern Conference that now has 7 teams and the new Portland (OR) Fire to the Western Conference that now has 8 teams. Included in the 44-game schedule will be the 6 or 7 games each team will play in the Commissioner's Cup tournament (June 1-17) with those games counting in the standings. The WNBA will also take a break (September 4-13) for the FIBA Women's World Cup basketball tournament. In June, the WNBA announced plans to grow to 18 teams with the addition of Cleveland in 2028, Detroit in 2029 and Philadelphia in 2030.
FOOTBALL
American Indoor Football: The AIF announced a new team called the Midland (TX) Frac-Attack has been added for the 2026 season and the team will play an independent schedule this year to include games against the AIF's other independent team called the Odessa (TX) Drillers and another AIF team to be announced next week.
International Arena League: The proposed new IAL announced its inaugural 2026 season schedule will feature 10 teams each playing 12 games from April 18 through July 25, 2026. The North America Conference includes the Arizona Juggernauts (Tempe), Cincinnati Slingers, Las Vegas Rockers, Pennsylvania Benjamins (Reading) and Utah Great 8's (Salt Lake City). The European Conference has the Dusseldorf Warriors (Germany), England Eruptors (Nottingham), Glasgow Tartans (Scotland), Stuttgart Stallions (Germany) and Zurich Ibexx (Switzerland).
National Arena League: The NAL's former Amarillo Dusters team announced plans to move to a yet-to-be-named location in Louisiana as the Bayou Bucks for a restart in 2027. No specific league was mentioned. The team played as the Amarillo Venom in the 2024 season of the American Indoor Football and joined the NAL as the renamed the Amarillo Dusters for the 2025 season. A month before the 2025 season the NAL terminated the membership of the Amarillo Dusters for failing to meet league obligations and the team did not play in 2025. A team called the Houma (LA) Bayou Bucks played three seasons (2002-04) in the former National Indoor Football League.
United Football League: The professional outdoor UFL announced the 2026 season schedule will feature eight teams aligned in a single-table format with each team playing a ten-game schedule from March 27 through May 31, 2026. Last season, the league had eight teams aligned in the four-team XFL and USFL conferences but this alignment was dropped for 2026. After the 2025 season, the UFL replaced the Memphis Showboats, Michigan Panthers (Detroit) and San Antonio Brahmas with new teams called the Louisville Kings, Columbus (OH) Aviators and Orlando Storm that will play home games at local soccer stadiums. Also, last season's Arlington (TX) Renegades will move to a soccer stadium in Frisco (TX) as the renamed the Dallas Renegades and the Houston Roughnecks will move to a soccer stadium in Houston as the renamed the Houston Gamblers. The three other returning teams are the Birmingham Stallions, D.C. Defenders and St. Louis Battlehawks.
HOCKEY
American Hockey League: The AHL's Bridgeport (CT) Islanders team, which is the affiliate of the National Hockey League's New York Islanders, is reported to be moving to the recently renovated and renamed TD Coliseum in Hamilton (Ontario) for the 2026-27 season. Neither the NHL nor the AHL team has confirmed the move. The city had the AHL's Hamilton Bulldogs team that relocated after the 2014-15 season. The Bridgeport Sound Tigers entered the AHL for the 2001-02 season and became the Bridgeport Islanders ahead of the 2021-22 season.
American Premier Hockey League: The Toledo Mobsters of the Senior-A semi-pro APHL came under new ownership and the team has been renamed the Toledo Swarm for the remainder of the 2025-26 season.
ECHL: The ECHL's Jacksonville Icemen played two games this weekend as the Jacksonville Lizard Kings in a tribute to the city's former ECHL team by that name. The Lizard Kings played five seasons (1995-2000) in the ECHL before folding. The ECHL has rescheduled the games that were postponed during the brief players strike last month (December 26-29).
SOCCER
Major League Indoor Soccer - Extended: The men's MLIS started the inaugural 2026 season of its new amateur-level MLISX last weekend with six teams called the FC Indiana (Lafayette/Fort Wayne), 1927 Sport Club (Fort Wayne), Kansas City Barilleros (Lenexa, KS), Summit City Sentinels (Fort Wayne, IN), Tampa Bay Terror and United North FC (Noble County, IN). Teams are to play into March 2026 but a full schedule is yet to be posted.
Women's Major League Indoor Soccer: The WMLIS, which is affiliated with the men's MLIS, started its second season last weekend with eight teams aligned in four-team Eastern and Western conferences and each team playing a ten-game schedule through March 15, 2026. Of the four teams from last season, the Chicago Mustangs, Summit City United (Fort Wayne) and Zoo City FC (Kalamazoo) have returned as part of the Eastern Conference but the Panathinaikos Chicago (PAO Chicago) did not. The WMLIS has added the expansion New Jersey Angels to the Eastern Conference and four other expansion teams called the Las Vegas Turf Monsters, New Mexico Lightning (Albuquerque), Phoenix Pulse and Utah Uprising (Salt Lake City) to the new Western Conference.
League1 Prairies: The League1 Canada, which is the national pro-am soccer organization that operates third-tier provincial men's and women's leagues called League1 Alberta, League1 BC (British Columbia), League1 Ontario and League1 Quebec, is organizing the new League1 Prairies that will have teams in the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The new league is expected to start in April 2026 as an "Exhibition Series" pilot project with eight possible teams. The full implementation of League1 Prairies is projected for the 2028 season with seven teams each from Manitoba and Saskatchewan. League1 Canada is also working on a League1 Atlantic consisting of teams from the provinces in the Atlantic Canada region.
MLS NEXT Pro (Major League Soccer): Major League Soccer's Division-III reserve league called the MLS NEXT Pro announced its 2026 season schedule will feature 30 teams each playing 28 games from February 27 through September 20, 2026. All 27 teams affiliated with MLS teams and the two independent teams from last season will return and the league has added a third independent team called the Connecticut United FC (Bridgeport). Three of the 30 MLS teams, the CF Montreal, D.C. United and San Diego FC, do not currently operate reserve teams in the MLS NEXT Pro. After operating the past two seasons as The Town FC under an agreement with The Town Group, the San Jose Earthquakes will again operate their MLS NEXT Pro team that will revert back to its previous name as the Quakes II for the 2026 season. The Eastern Conference will have eight-team Northeast and Southeast divisions with the Connecticut United FC added to the Northeast Division and the Chicago Fire II moving to the Southeast Division. The Western Conference will again have seven-team Frontier and Western divisions.
OTHER
Liga Mexicana de Softbol: The Mexican women's professional softball league known as the LMS, or Mexican Softball League, started its third season this week with the same eight teams as last season. Each team will play 28 games from January 22 through March 8, 2026. Seven teams take their names from affiliated men's professional baseball teams in the Liga Mexicana de Beisbol, while one team takes its name from an affiliated men's professional baseball team in the fall-winter Liga Mexicana del Pacifico (Mexican Pacific League).
Western Ultimate League: The women's professional WUL recently announced its 2026 season schedule will feature eight teams in four-team North and South conferences with each team playing eight games from March 13 through May 31, 2026. The league had seven teams in a single-table format last season, but the Los Angeles Astra will return after playing the 2025 season in the Premier Ultimate League and will be part of the South Conference with the returning Arizona Sidewinders, Bay Area Falcons and San Diego Super Bloom. The North Conference teams will include the returning Colorado Alpenglow, Oregon Soar (Portland), Seattle Tempest and Utah Wild.
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 January 26, 2026
- Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report - OSC Original by Dan Krieger
- 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.
