PFN: UFL’s Outings In Birmingham Reveal Tidbits

[4th&long]

https://pfnewsroom.com/news/ufls-outing ... -for-2025/

Tidbits:

- regular season roster will remain at 50 players, 64 will be brought to Training Camp – as it stands right now
- Sounds like the 2025 schedule could be coming in “a week or two.”
- According to Daryl Johnston, there have been multiple coaches who have reached out about being able to kick extra points next season.
- Skip Holtz says he thinks the #UFL DFW hub will be around for at least 3 years.
- Holtz Says the league would like to move teams into their home markets after that before eventually selling them to owners.
- Also says UFL could move from 8 to 10 teams in the next few years.


Love all of them - esp the PAT kick.  I wanted the USFL rules vs XFL on PAT.  We might see that.  Make the 2 pt easier and more scoring with K's.  I'd much the 3 pt up to.
Schedule in couple weeks - would be awesome.

Here's a clip on X:



More on PAT kicks:

[4th&long]

Didn't see this at first...

 https://uflboard.com/news/holtz-details ... -and-more/

>> Holtz was very positive on the future of the UFL, and how ownership is in it for the long haul. He said it’s been a “10 out of 10” in terms of the television ratings versus what was expected, indicating league management and potentially ownership were happy with the results in that regard least season. <<

That's good news.

[johnnyangryfuzzball]

Maybe I'm a grouch here, but the one thing that makes spring football spring football—other than, well, playing in the spring—is the no-kicking-extra-points rule. Yeah, maybe the 1-2-3 rule is gimmicky. But so is moving the extra point line to the 15, and yet the NFL did it.

There's a reason spring football has always had tweaks to the rules, and it's because they try things the fans want to see improved in the game that you couldn't try in the NFL. That's something Daryl Johnston doesn't understand. We don't want an NFL clone of a game. We want to see things the teams can experiment with. Arena football adopted a 1-2-4 rule last year—it had a direct impact on multiple games involving the top of their league, along with their "single" and "deuce" kickoff rules. Arena leagues are innovating. The UFL seems to be trying to drag its game kicking and screaming back into the familiar.

The extra point kick is a relic. It's superfluous. Making it artificially harder wasn't the solution, especially in this era when kickers are kicking the ball longer than ever.

The AAF approach was my personal favorite of all of them, in that they simplified everything. No kicks for XP or kickoffs. I do like kickoffs (not that I'd scream if they went away, though I'd much rather see a return to the 20-yard touchback instead of the 25) but don't like the extra point.

(Speaking of kickoffs... rant time... the NFL as we know picked up the XFL kickoff rule. But they don't have as many returns because they're still getting touchbacks. So their solution is rumored to be to make an even bigger incentive for returners not to return the ball by moving the touchback to the 35... when the returner has 30 yards of open space in front of the end zone to not worry about being tackled in it. There should be no reason for touchbacks in the old XFL kickoff formation, lest the kick go all the way back past the end line. I propose put the touchback back at the 20, and require the kick returner to return the kick at the risk of conceding a safety. If they want returns, they have to take away the incentive not to return it. They can't keep putting the onus on the kicker. But I'm ranting off-topic...)

[MGB01]

Sure you wanna be bringing up stuff from the Arena League? Was anybody actually watching what was scrounged together by the ArenaBowl? At least use the far superior IFL--even if their championship is the most stupidly named generic crap.

Back to the UFL, these are all trivial in comparison to Pereira, he's now blatantly making things up to curry favor (I know I know, what do you mean now?). Seattle supposedly got consecutive timeouts before Patrick O'Donnell punted, which would have left them with none--let's just leave out the fact that Jauan Jennings went from out of bounds to suddenly being ruled to have gone out on his own to restart the clock (as if Coby Bryant escorting him out had nothing to do with it), forcing them to, um, burn their second timeout. So did they get a fourth timeout after Geno's first scramble for 16 then? PSSSST, that's what granted means.

Everyone seems to think he's this model of officiating that the NFL wronged (Bottlegate anybody?), BS--and this also speaks nothing of his hand in creating all these new exciting weekly rule changes in the USFL in 2022. Hell with him.

[johnnyangryfuzzball]

Sure you wanna be bringing up stuff from the Arena League? Was anybody actually watching what was scrounged together by the ArenaBowl? At least use the far superior IFL--even if their championship is the most stupidly named generic crap.

Back to the UFL, these are all trivial in comparison to Pereira, he's now blatantly making things up to curry favor (I know I know, what do you mean now?). Seattle supposedly got consecutive timeouts before Patrick O'Donnell punted, which would have left them with none--let's just leave out the fact that Jauan Jennings went from out of bounds to suddenly being ruled to have gone out on his own to restart the clock (as if Coby Bryant escorting him out had nothing to do with it), forcing them to, um, burn their second timeout. So did they get a fourth timeout after Geno's first scramble for 16 then? PSSSST, that's what granted means.

Everyone seems to think he's this model of officiating that the NFL wronged (Bottlegate anybody?), BS--and this also speaks nothing of his hand in creating all these new exciting weekly rule changes in the USFL in 2022. Hell with him.

I get it... though the current crew appears to have for the most part righted the ship there. I'm more talking about the willingness to try new rules than the business side (and the reason I didn't use IFL is because IFL is much more conservative in that realm).

Our board came over from the XFL side. if you want a better-run example than last year's debacle of an AFL, use that. The XFL had always been big on trying and testing new rules the right way, especially in 2020. Daryl Johnston has been outspoken about wanting the on-field product to be NFL Lite, right on down to the two feet in bounds rule. I hate that. I'm not exaggerating when i say nobody outside the UFL is clamoring to see kicked extra points return to the game, so why are they bringing it up other than Johnston's obsession with making the game NFL Lite?

Furthermore, that's something that I know I was deeply concerned about with this merger and the various incompatibilities that might arise. A lot of the things that made the XFL the XFL are gone or will soon be gone.

[GregParks]

Daryl Johnston has been outspoken about wanting the on-field product to be NFL Lite, right on down to the two feet in bounds rule. I hate that. I'm not exaggerating when i say nobody outside the UFL is clamoring to see kicked extra points return to the game, so why are they bringing it up other than Johnston's obsession with making the game NFL Lite?

To be fair, if Johnston is to be believed, the request for kicked XPs is coming from the coaches, which kind of makes sense that they would want it. Now, Moose could just say, "no," but we'll see if that happens. I agree with your larger point, though, that spring football should feel special and different from the NFL especially if you're desiring to be a "standalone" league which is often what we've heard from ownership.

[MGB01]

At the same time, are they getting anything from being different? Case in point, the fumble/touchback rule "done correctly", which happened in the last minute of XFL game 40. I don't remember seeing any big celebratory "at last!" congrats from say Florio, who's been whining the most about it for years, nor the rest of the contingent--maybe an occasional "Look here!"

Much like a bad team who makes trades just to make trades, I don't want to see leagues be different just to be different. If there's a point to it that's good for the game like the two (and now three) pointer, yes. Something like the above that's changed just to curry favor, no--the worst thing is not with a viewing audience or investors but "insiders".

Forget Chris Simms' lame defense of it where he does a ridiculous Bill Walton impression (love Florio whining about nepo-babies and here's his partner), the reason it's there is the endzone, yes is different than even the 1, because not only is it a score but it's also the end of a possession.

There's a line between "NFL Lite" (I would think a running clock, 2:00 timing, three-point conversions, and kickoffs from the 20 address that) and "we're in your face and different!". Anyone want to see XFL1.0 again? We might, we're also the only ones. People might bitch and whine about the NFL being old, staid, and boring--a la Howard Cosell when he left MNF 40 years ago, and might even beat their chests about it being time for a new league and how they're going to watch. Yeah that'll last about what, two weeks? How do I know? I was posting on the original XFLBoard at the time, I just described exactly what happened.

Now I don't have any confidence on Moose holding firm (see USFL, especially if Pereira's also pushing for it), but NFL Lite is a stretch. 

[GregParks]

At the same time, are they getting anything from being different? 

This is a fair question. Is there any proof that changing the rules to be different from the NFL actually benefits a league like the UFL in any tangible way?

Maybe there isn't but I also don't think this league, any league, is going to succeed by being a second-rate NFL. If it's going to fail, I'd rather see it fail trying to offer something different and new. The key, as you mentioned, is not to cross the line and become gimmicky. That's going to be a sliding scale depending on the person.

I do think the UFL needs something to call its own if only for branding purposes; it helps if people see your brand as innovative and forward-thinking with rule changes, for example. And if they don't work, the UFL shouldn't have the level of resistance the NFL has historically had in changing rules for the betterment of the game; one advantage the UFL should have is that it can and will change rules when necessary.

[4th&long]

At the same time, are they getting anything from being different? 

This is a fair question. Is there any proof that changing the rules to be different from the NFL actually benefits a league like the UFL in any tangible way?

Maybe there isn't but I also don't think this league, any league, is going to succeed by being a second-rate NFL. If it's going to fail, I'd rather see it fail trying to offer something different and new. The key, as you mentioned, is not to cross the line and become gimmicky. That's going to be a sliding scale depending on the person.

I do think the UFL needs something to call its own if only for branding purposes; it helps if people see your brand as innovative and forward-thinking with rule changes, for example. And if they don't work, the UFL shouldn't have the level of resistance the NFL has historically had in changing rules for the betterment of the game; one advantage the UFL should have is that it can and will change rules when necessary.

Having the 3pt conversion is the Difference.  Not in NFL or CFB.

I like the USFL version PAT for 1 at 33yd.  But I also like the 2pt conversion from the 2yd vs 5 for XFL/UFL.   That's too far. 
Same with the 3pt conversion - put that at the 5yd or 6yd line.  Make it more enticing and doable.  More scoring GOOD.

I also like the XFL/CFB 1 foot in bounds on catch rule.  Makes for more offense.  More scoring GOOD.
Maybe a compromise where in the enzone its two feet, but anywhere else its one.

The traditional KO and 15 yd on PI rules, are also different and much better than NFL.