There were brief windows in 2020 and again in 2024 when it appeared that spring football might finally find purchase in the American TV landscape.
If the 2025 UFL ratings are any indication, that window is rapidly closing again, just as it did on the XFL, AAF, and USFL before.
And due to a situation that is partly bad luck and partly bad planning, things are probably about to get much worse.
The UFL, which was born from the merging of the third iteration of the XFL and the second iteration of the USFL (got that?), is currently in its second season. Whereas ratings for the first season were respectable for a spring football league, this year got off to an ignominious start. Week 1 saw the worst viewership for a spring football league’s opening week, down 42% from the league’s first year. For most of their broadcast windows since, ratings have remained stagnant.
The ABC primetime window has offered a glimmer of hope. The most recent ABC Sunday game garnered almost one million viewers (last year’s games would regularly top a million). However, many viewers missed the thrilling finish after it was bumped to ESPN2 for an NBA pregame show.
With two weeks left in the regular season, the saving grace for the UFL was supposed to be that they’d feature important matchups to determine playoff positioning. Unfortunately, the disparity between the league’s top and bottom teams is so vast that we already know who the four playoff teams will be. The league may be able to manufacture some drama out of playoff seedings, but most of the remaining eight games are effectively exhibitions.
Last year’s championship game garnered an average of 1.596 million viewers, making it the most-watched spring football championship game since the XFL’s 2001 title game. It’s hard to see how the UFL will get the momentum to match that this time (even with a Tom Brady bump).
Some of these issues could have been mitigated had the UFL followed in the 2020 XFL’s footsteps and worked hard to create storylines and in-game drama beyond the Xs and Os (remember Pat McAfee’s sideline reporting antics?). However, the league seemed to decide it was above that or wanted the football to speak for itself. They’ve gotten what they wanted, just not the way they intended.