Lost amid the announcement of the United Football League and the various dispersal drafts that occurred in early and mid-January was a social media post by the UFL Player’s Association, the primary bargaining unit for UFL players.
This post outlined not only how much the association had negotiated for players since the first season of the USFL in 2022, it also gave us a few key pieces of information related to the UFL in 2024 and perhaps beyond. The league itself didn’t release much information related to training camp or roster mechanics, so this was a newsworthy post in that regard. Since we’re now into week two of the camp grind, I thought it was a good time to revisit this list as a reminder of some of the details ingrained in this season’s version of the league. Below are the five that I found most noteworthy.
*Contract term: January 1 – August 24
The timing here is different than the USFL in 2022 and 2023, as well as the XFL last year. The XFL contracts were one year in length with a mutual option for a second year; there’s no word yet as to what kinds of options UFL contracts will feature. Players were expected to execute their new contracts once they arrived at training camp in Arlington.
The curious thing to me is the end date: August 24. I’m not sure what the significance of that date would be and why that was selected as the expiration date. It could potentially create a free agent period for UFL players and teams prior to a fall draft of those exiled from NFL teams following training camps, if the league chooses to hold such a draft. That would allow roster building to continue through the winter with a list of players to be set for each squad’s training camp early in 2025.
*Camp roster: 75 players (only for 2024 season)
USFL camp rosters were significantly smaller, to the point that each team only had to make a few cuts to set their regular season roster. The 75-man rosters this season for camp are due in large part to the extinguishing of eight teams across the two former leagues, and the desire to integrate many of those players onto UFL rosters. That won’t be the case in 2025, though there’s no indication as to the size of camp rosters next year.
While 75 may be too large, 58, the previous USFL camp roster size, strikes me as too small. There’s plenty of room in Arlington, as has been proven this year and last, to accommodate preseason rosters of significant size. The league must pay to house and feed those extra players; they may determine that saving money by scaling back camp rosters supersedes the competition that larger rosters would create in 2025.
*Player accolade bonuses
The bonuses stipulate how much players receive for certain accolades. The Player of the Week and MVP honors did not exist for the XFL in 2023, so those will be new to fans. They had Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, which appear as if they will carry over to the UFL.
*Player injured reserve – 5 games
As of Monday, we’ve already seen three players placed on injured reserve across the league after the first full week of training camp practices. While these players conceivably could be out for the season, it appears as if the minimum stay on injured reserve will be five games. This is worth keeping in mind as injuries will continue to accumulate throughout camp and the early part of the regular season.
*Season ending injured reserve guarantees player a camp invite the following season
An interesting twist is that if a player is placed on season-ending injured reserve, they have a spot guaranteed on that team’s camp roster the following season. This was also a rule in effect in 2023 for the USFL. It’s a compelling make-good for players who get hurt and thus may not be able to make as much money as their peers for that season (not to mention dashing their NFL dreams for another year). These aren’t multi-millionaires on guaranteed contracts, after all.
