Weekly Sports League and Franchise Report

by Dan Krieger
Published on March 30, 2026 under Major League Rugby (MLR)

BASEBALL

Blue Ridge League: The new summer-collegiate BRL is looking to start its inaugural 2026 season with eight teams. Of the six previously announced teams, the West Virginia Miners are gone but the league added new teams called the Joanna (SC) Hornets, Greenwood (SC) Fly Monkeys and the Spartanburg County Peaches (Inman, SC).

California League: The Visalia Rawhide of the Single-A California League will play every Saturday home game during the 2026 season as the Central Valley Sir Loins, which was derived from the area's beef industry.

American Association: The Milwaukee Milkmen of the independent American Association will play one game in the 2026 season as the Franklin Benjamins that was chosen from fan submissions. The team's home ballpark is Franklin Field and the temporary team name honors the American statesmen, Benjamin Franklin.

International League: The Triple-A International League started its 2026 season this week with the same 20 teams and affiliations as last season and again aligned in ten-team East and West divisions. Each team will play 150 games through September 20, 2026.

Pacific Coast League: The Triple-A PCL started it 2026 season this week with same ten teams and affiliations as last season and again aligned in five-team East and West divisions. Each team will play 150 games through September 20, 2026.

Pecos League: The independent Pecos League announced its Pecos (TX) Bills team will serve as a development team for the Pericos de Puebla of the Mexican Baseball League (Liga Mexicana de Beisbol) with six players taking spots on the Bills' roster in 2026. In 2024 the Pericos sent players to the Pecos League's Roswell Invaders and in 2025 sent players to the Pecos League's Monterrey Amberjacks.

Major League Baseball: The 30-team MLB started its 2026 season this week with the same 15-team American League and 15-team National League each aligned in 5-team East, Central and West divisions. Each team will play a 162-game schedule through September 27, 2025.

BASKETBALL

National Basketball Association: The NBA's Board of Governors agreed this week to explore the addition of expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle that would grow the league to 32 teams. The league will now start accepting and vetting bids from potential ownership groups in those markets before deciding when to add teams to the league. The NBA had been considering the 2028-29 season for the new teams to start.

Women's National Basketball Association: The WNBA and the WNBA Players' Association have ratified a new seven-year collective bargaining agreement. The league's 2026 season will start as planned on May 8 and the draft for the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire expansion teams will be held on April 3. The WNBA's new Cleveland expansion team that is expected to start in the 2028 season will announce the team's name this summer. The WNBA's Connecticut Sun (Uncasville) is reported to be on the move after the 2026 season to Houston where the team will become the Houston Comets for the 2027 season.

FOOTBALL

European League of Football: The ELF professional American-style football league, which played last season with 16 teams aligned in 4 divisions, has been declared financially insolvent and will not play in 2026. The ELF was down to only two remaining teams when several 2025 teams moved to other leagues or folded. Seven teams left for the new American Football League-Europe, four teams left for the new European Football Alliance and one team left for the Austrian Football League.

Entertainment Football Association: The proposed new indoor ENTFA, which failed to get off the ground last summer with four teams called the Danbury (CT) Diesel, Garden State Heroes (Middletown, NJ), New Jersey Ciphers (Morristown) and New York Dragons (Long Island), held tryouts last month for the same four teams as it tries to start again in 2026. The league has a long-range goal of having 30 globally branded teams by 2030.

United Football League: The professional outdoor UFL started its 2026 season this weekend with eight teams aligned in a single-table format with each team playing a ten-game schedule through May 31, 2026. Last season, the league had eight teams aligned in 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 each play home games at local soccer stadiums. Also, last season's Arlington (TX) Renegades moved to a soccer stadium in Frisco (TX) and were renamed the Dallas Renegades and the Houston Roughnecks moved to a soccer stadium in Houston as the renamed the Houston Gamblers. The three other returning teams are the Birmingham Stallions, D.C. Defenders (Washington, DC) and St. Louis Battlehawks.

HOCKEY

American Premier Hockey League: The Wooster (OH) Bulls, Motor City Muskies, Iron City Forge and Toledo Swarm are no longer part of the senior-A semi-pro APHL. The Wooster and Motor City teams are reported to be joining the Michigan Independent Hockey League and the APHL is replacing the Bulls with the new Wooster Warhawks.

Federal Prospects Hockey League: The FPHL confirmed the addition of a new Memphis-area expansion team, currently listed as Mid-South Pro Hockey, which will play out of the Landers Center in suburban Southaven (MS) starting with the 2026-27 season. The new team will be operated by the owner of the league's Binghamton (NY) Black Bears and the team is holding a name-the-team contest. The Memphis market had a previous team known as the Memphis RiverKings/Mississippi RiverKings that played 19 seasons (1992-2011) in the Central Hockey League. The team started as the Memphis RiverKings, moved to the Landers Center in Southaven (MS) for the 2000 season, and became the Mississippi RiverKings starting with the 2007-08 season. The team then switched to the SPHL for seven seasons (2011-18) before folding.

Ontario Hockey League: The major-junior OHL is looking to expand in the near future and the Chatham-Kent market is considered to be at the top of the list as an expansion candidate.

Roller Hockey International: A new version of the professional RHI is being organized for a proposed start in 2028 with ten teams to be based in Montreal, Quebec City, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Dallas, Tampa Bay Los Angeles and Anaheim. The original RHI operated for six seasons (1993-97 and 1999) with teams in the United States and Canada.

SOCCER

USL Championship League (United Soccer League): The Sacramento Republic FC of the Division-II professional USL Championship announced it expanded the seating at its proposed new soccer stadium from 12,000 to 20,000 to meet Major League Soccer standards. The team was previously under consideration for a Division-I MLS expansion team but was never able to deliver on a new stadium. The Sacramento Republic has also been mentioned as a candidate for the USL's new Division-I USL Premier slated to start in 2028.

USL W-League (United Soccer League): The Portland (ME) Hearts of Pine in the men's USL League One are looking to start a team in the women's USL W-League for the 2027 season.

National Women's Soccer League: A developer trying to build a 25,000-seat enclosed soccer stadium in Mesa (AZ) for a potential Phoenix metro area NWSL expansion team stated 20,000 people signed a fan initiative to build the stadium at the city's former Fiesta Mall site. The NWSL will be adding Atlanta as a 2028 expansion team and is looking to add one other market. Another group has expressed interest in bringing an NWSL expansion team to Columbus (OH).

OTHER

Major League Rugby: The men's professional rugby union (15-player) MLR started its 2026 season this weekend with six teams called the Anthem Rugby Carolina (Charlotte), California Legion (Los Angeles/San Diego), Chicago Hounds, New England Free Jacks (Boston), Old Glory DC (Germantown, MD) and Seattle Seawolves aligned in a single-table format. Each team will play a ten-match schedule through June 7, 2026. Last season, the league had 11 teams aligned in 2 conferences but the Miami Sharks, NOLA Gold (New Orleans), Houston Sabercats and Utah Warriors (Salt Lake City) announced they would not participate in the 2026 season, while the Rugby FC Los Angeles and San Diego Legion merged to create the new California Legion.

Athletes Unlimited Softball League: The six teams that will participate in the 2026 season of the women's professional AUSL announced their schedules that will feature each team playing 25 games from June 9 through July 18, 2026. After holding its inaugural 2025 season with four teams called the Bandits, Blaze, Talons and Volts playing a tour-based schedule involving ten cities, the AUSL assigned the teams to individual home markets and added two expansion teams for 2026. The four returning teams are now the Chicago Bandits (Rosemont, IL), Carolina Blaze (Durham, NC), Utah Talons (Salt Lake City) and Texas Volts (Round Rock), while the new teams are the Portland Cascade (Hillsboro, OR) and the Oklahoma City Spark, a professional team that played an independent schedule in 2025.

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.

Major League Rugby Stories from March 30, 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.