Until recently, the spring football war between the USFL and XFL was merely theoretical – each had only been worried about doing their own thing, each in vastly different phases of existence. For much of 2022, the USFL was preparing for, then playing out, its first season while the XFL continued to build behind the scenes with executive hires and partnership announcements. But now, the battle has become much more real; specifically, the battle over players that will populate the leagues.
The USFL had a big advantage as its first year was unopposed by the XFL. Therefore, they were the only game in town and could gobble up all the top free agents willing to play in the highest level of pro football outside of the NFL. The calculus has now changed with the XFL seeking players from the same pool the USFL is looking to draw from for its second season.
The two leagues are attempting to lock down players, the XFL for its November draft and the USFL to occupy spots in its training camps for next spring. In doing so, they’ve curated partnerships with other leagues or camps that gives them a pipeline to free agent talent, thus making it attractive for those players to sign with the partner league over the other.
In April, the XFL announced an agreement with the NFL Alumni Academy, a training ground for free agents seeking to make it into the NFL. Per the deal, players who make it through the Academy and who don’t ink an NFL deal by the end of that season are automatically guaranteed an XFL contract offer. With more than 50 players per session and four sessions of the Academy running during the fall and winter, that’s upward of 200 players who, because of this partnership, could be funneled straight into the XFL. Some of those players may spurn the XFL for the USFL, but given the contract guarantee from the XFL, it would seem like few would opt for that route.
In addition, as noted by NFLAA Executive Director Dean Dalton in an interview with XFL News Hub’s Mark Perry, the XFL had a hand in choosing the participants of the first session, which has recently commenced. “…[T]he NFL Alumni Academy extends invitations, and we work in collaboration with XFL personnel directors to make sure that everybody that is on our invite list qualifies for their invitation list and opportunities,” Dalton said. He also noted the NFLAA uses quarterbacks assigned to them by the XFL. In this first session, those QBs are Cole McDonald and Davis Cheek.
On Wednesday, the XFL announced its affiliation with the Indoor Football League (IFL). According to the press release, “The partnership provides the framework for transferring players between leagues and the opportunity for players released from XFL teams to be transferred to IFL squads. The two leagues will also work together in scheduling joint tryouts and sharing video and game films.”
Many players who tried out at XFL Showcases over the summer have played in the IFL, as have players invited into their draft pool. It’s fair to wonder whether this agreement provides the XFL some potential in-season injury replacement by having players “transferred” from IFL rosters to the XFL. Finding in-shape players during the spring (as mentioned by Doug Whaley in the release) is a needed area for the league without a Team Nine in 2023 as the XFL had on hand in 2020. It also allows the XFL easier access to an entire league’s worth of potential players for future seasons.
One day after the XFL/IFL alliance was made public, the USFL put out news of its own compact, with HUB Football. HUB holds free-agent workouts and camps across the country for players looking to get their foot into (or back into) the pro football door. What this “data partnership” between HUB and the USFL entails is unclear, but one can assume players who sign up for these workouts will be looked at closely by USFL personnel. It’s interesting to note that the most recent Twitter post by HUB Football, after this announcement, claims their upcoming camp in California will be attended by NFL, CFL, and USFL teams. In September, advertising their Florida camp, their Tweet also included the XFL.
Throughout the fall, USFL teams have periodically announced player signings on Twitter. These signings have surprised some who anticipated all players brought into the USFL would go through another draft. With players being signed by teams, there’s been no word on who would then qualify for the draft, presuming the league has another one before season two. These signings could be a way to scoop players up and guarantee them a spot on a USFL team for training camp, rather than ask them to wait to see if they’d get drafted, in order to secure their services before the XFL is able to do so.
When it comes to acquiring players straight out of college, the USFL and XFL calendars are both advantageous, but for different reasons. The USFL season begins in mid-April, just prior to the NFL Draft. For players who go undrafted and unsigned, they could choose to go right into the USFL and sign early in the season with a team, hoping to show enough to earn an NFL camp invite in the summer. In the future, players unlikely to get drafted or signed after the draft could even jump to the USFL prior to the NFL Draft.
College football’s transfer portal has become much like free agency in the pros. It’s never been easier to transfer schools, and coaches and players are utilizing it to its fullest. The idea of bringing in college football players with eligibility still remaining was a brainchild of the 2020 version of the XFL, with only Kenny Robinson taking advantage. I asked Doug Whaley at the Florida Showcase in June if the XFL would dip its toe into those waters again; he indicated it would take special circumstances, as Robinson was, for the league to look in that direction.
But in a recent interview with the Las Vegas Sun, XFL Las Vegas head coach Rod Woodson cited the portal as something the XFL could potentially take advantage of in its quest for talent. “Maybe in a year or so, we can get some of those college-transfer portal guys and feed them to the NFL Draft,” he said. And the XFL’s season dovetails nicely with the draft, as NFL scouts will be able to see the player complete much of the XFL season prior to the NFL Draft in late April, just as Robinson did with the St. Louis BattleHawks before he was a fifth round selection of the Carolina Panthers that spring.
The competition between the two leagues has stretched beyond the player aspect, and has hit more directly than the above agreements: Ten USFL assistant coaches from season one were hired by XFL teams. It was the first real shot across the bow by the Dwayne Johnson/Dany Garcia/RedBird Capital ownership group; they may not have set out to raid USFL coaching staffs, but from a public relations standpoint, it could be seen as a positive side-effect that these coaches were willing to cross enemy lines and take the similar positions on the other side of this rivalry.
If the XFL has its way, they won’t stop at coaches: There are players from the USFL’s first season who could sign with the XFL once their contracts expire at the end of 2022. Bryan Scott, who was identified as a potential XFL quarterback working out under the league’s QB guru, Jordan Palmer, is one of those players. Scott was a first-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Stars but finished the season on injured reserve. More players could follow Scott’s lead, making the competition for players that much more intriguing.
It remains to be seen whether there will be enough interest in spring football to sustain two leagues of this size over the long haul. If the answer is “yes,” the players will benefit most. They will have two more leagues in which to make a living playing a game they love, and the partnerships the XFL and USFL are forming with camps and other leagues ensures that no stone is unturned to find talent to populate their rosters. For many fans of these alternative leagues, the draw is seeing players live out their dreams even when the door to the NFL has closed. With the USFL and XFL trying to one-up each other in partnering with feeder systems to bring players on board, there have never been more options for a pro football player hanging on to that dream.
