The 2024 UFL season is the first season of the United Football League (UFL), which was created following the merger of the XFL and USFL, and the fifth season in the combined history of the two leagues, following the 2020 XFL season, 2022 USFL season, and separate 2023 seasons for both the USFL and XFL.

The season began on March 30, 2024 and will end on June 2, 2024. The season kicked off with a matchup between the 2023 XFL champion Arlington Renegades and the 2023 USFL champion Birmingham Stallions.^[1] The postseason will start on June 8, 2024 and conclude on June 16, 2024 with the 2024 UFL Championship.

The merged league retained the XFL and USFL brands as individual conferences. Four teams came from the XFL, while three came from the USFL. The two leagues' Houston-based teams merged under the name and branding of the XFL's Roughnecks, but the merged team took the Gamblers' place in the USFL Conference and retained the Gamblers' player rights and coaching staff.^[29]

Arlington

DC

Houston

Memphis

Michigan

Birmingham

San Antonio

St. Louis

Locations of current teams for the 2024 UFL season, (USFL Conference – red; XFL Conference – blue)

Eight of the 16 head coaches from both leagues' 2023 season returned, some with different teams, with all coaches being announced on January 1, 2024. All eight coaches led a team in one of the two leagues during the 2023 season and five are returning to the same squads as 2023. Former XFL coaches Reggie Barlow, Anthony Becht, and Bob Stoops agreed to a future pay cut to remain in the new league,^[34] while Hines Ward refused.^[34]

Rod Woodson had resigned his position with the Vegas Vipers before the team was contracted.^[35] The remaining five coaches—the Generals' Mike Riley, the Stars' Bart Andrus, the Maulers' Ray Horton, the Guardians' Terrell Buckley, and the Sea Dragons' Jim Haslett—saw their positions eliminated with the merger, as did Anthony Blevins, who had been named Woodson's successor.

On February 21, 2024 the league announced the teams' full coaching staffs.^[41][42][43] In March the UFL announced an expanded partnership (in collaboration with Under Armour) with the National Coalition of Minority Football Coaches (NCMFC) for creating opportunities for minority football coaches.^[44] Starting March 7th, the eight selected high school coaches will attend the UFL’s training camp in Arlington, assisting with team meetings, practices and address team needs, they will also join their team for five home games in their respective markets, assisting on the sidelines and working with staff on key projects.^[45] NCMFC coaches for the 2024 season will be: Nkere Reed (Renegades), Jason Winchell (Stallions), Eric Allie (Defenders), Yusef Johnson (Roughnecks), Rodney Saulsberry Sr. (Showboats), Marcus Green (Panthers), Matthew Bullock (Brahmas) and Kenneth Boyer (Battlehawks).^[46]

Players will report to training camp February 23, 2024.^[47] Each team carried 75-men rosters to training camp and trimmed them down to 58 by March 10, 2024. Final roster cuts took place on March 23, 2024, with regular season rosters set at 50 (45 active on game day).^[48][49] The minimum stay on injured reserve will be for five games, while a season-ending injured reserve designation guarantees player a camp invitation the following season.^[50]

While the UFL embraced more of a "developmental league" mentality,^[51] they're also targeting veteran backup-type players, with Johnston saying: "there are a lot of guys who are at peace that their NFL window has closed, but they love the camaraderie of the locker room. They love the day-to-day grind... That's been the really inspiring thing to me, is there is a number of guys in our league who just love the game and want to keep playing it as long as they can.^[52] Players that have three or four years in the NFL and want to kind of rewrite that narrative, the way that they’re being viewed by front office’s in the NFL, they want an opportunity to come into the UFL and change that narrative".^[53]

Before week three, after several NFL teams approached Panthers K Jake Bates, it was reveled that according to the leagues agreement NFL teams are allowed to contact UFL teams about their players, but cannot directly contact or sign players under contract with the UFL until after the UFL season ended.^[54]

Mike Pereira and Dean Blandino will be in charge of the UFL's officiating and rules.^[33][118]

The league rulebook was released February 13, 2024. Though most of the UFL's unique rules were common to both the USFL and XFL (such as allowing a second forward pass if the first does not cross the line of scrimmage, and the treatment of a fumble through the end zone the same as other forward fumbles in that it is brought back to the spot of the fumble), a limited number required compromise or were changed entirely from both leagues' rules:^{[119][120][121]}

• The league will use the USFL's kickoff rule, which resembles that used at most levels of the game but kicks off from the kicking team's 20-yard line instead of the 35-yard line used at the college and NFL levels (as opposed to the XFL rule which kicked off from the 30-yard line but had the opposing teams line up 35 and 40 yards downfield from the kick respectively and required the kicker to land the kick within 20 yards of the end zone without going in).^[122][47] A rule proposal would replace the kickoff with a punt, thereby resembling the safety kick at other levels of the game, but this rule did not make it into the rule book.^[123]
• The onside conversion option will remain available, with a team trailing in the fourth quarter allowed to attempt a single scrimmage play to gain 12 yards from its own 28-yard line. (The XFL used 15 yards from its own 25-yard line; the USFL used 12 yards from its own 33-yard line.)
• Pass interference penalties will be classified as two types of penalties.
  • Regular defensive pass interference penalties will be limited to 15 yards from the previous line of scrimmage or the spot of the foul, whichever is less.
  • Intentional defensive pass interference is a spot foul, regardless of it being more than 15 yards from the previous line of scrimmage. Similar to a flagrant foul 1 in basketball, where it is called for a foul to stop a breakaway that would lead to a score, intentional pass interference is called when a defensive player commits pass interference against an intended receiver who would make a gain of over 15 yards or score a touchdown were he to catch the ball. This eliminates defensive players from taking advantage of the 15 yard penalty for pass interference on a play that would have gained more than 20 yards.
• The league will use the XFL's variable-distance conversion rule, offering one, two or three points depending upon how far away from the goal line the offense chooses to attempt the play, and prohibiting kicking for the extra point. (The USFL had allowed the two and three point scrimmage conversions but allowed for an extra point kick.)
• All touchbacks will come to the receiving team's 25-yard line. Any coffin corner punt that goes out of bounds beyond the 25-yard line will be treated as a touchback, a rule previously used in the XFL (though that league had used the 35-yard line for its touchbacks).
• The league will use the National Football League rule requiring a receiver to land both feet in bounds for a forward pass to be counted as complete. This was a change from both the XFL and USFL, along with most other professional leagues other than the NFL, that only required one foot in-bounds for a completed pass. This puts the league in line as a developmental league.
• The league will use remote sensing technology to determine whether the ball has advanced across the line to gain, negating the need for an official chain crew. The USFL had used similar technology, which in 2024 will be provided by BOLT6,^[124] a company that had originally signed a partnership with the XFL.^[125]
• The XFL overtime rule will be carried over, in that tie games will involve a best-of-three shootout of two-point conversion attempts from each 5-yard line. If the tie persists, multiple attempts will be played until one team scores, which wins it. One timeout can be called per attempt. The overtime has no game clock, but the play clock will still be used.

All games stream on ESPN+ or Fox Sports app unless otherwise noted.

Announced attendance figures for each home game.^[134] In the weekly columns, dashes (—) indicate away games, while bold font indicates the highest attendance of the week.

The home openers for Arlington and Michigan were both up compared to their counterparts in 2023 (12,047 for Arlington, an estimated 7,500 for Michigan^[214]), while San Antonio's was down from its opener (but still in line with other home games in 2023), in part due to church service attendance Easter Sunday morning.^[215] Houston and Memphis also saw substantial declines compared to 2023, with Johnston admitting concern about the Showboats' crowd turnout and noting that it was part of a downward trend for the team dating back to its 2023 home opener; he had hoped for improvement for the 2025 season with more favorable time slots.^[216]

The league was created as a "merger of equals", with the respective leagues' owners assuming 50% ownership of the newly formed UFL.^[126] RedBird Capital Partners owner Gerry Cardinale called it "a tremendous opportunity to achieve something unique. A legitimate shot at becoming one of the top professional leagues in the country after the big four leagues".^[230]

In March, Under Armour announced they extended the multi-year agreement signed in 2023 with the XFL.^[231] Later that month, Michael Strahan's MSX brand was announced as the "Official Off-Field Apparel Partner".^[232] Other UFL's sponsors include: Westgate Resorts, Progressive Insurance, PepsiCo (Gatorade), The Coca-Cola Company (Simply Spiked), CBD Kratom, and Molson Coors. Johnson and Garcia also use the league to promote their own brands, Teremana Tequila and ZOA Energy Drink.^[233] On April 6, 2024 the league announced a partnership with the United States Army,^[234] who paid an estimated $10 million for jersey patch sponsorship and other promotional considerations.^[235] In April Upper Deck announced they'll release "2024 UFL Game Dated Moments Cards".^[236]

St. Louis Battlehawks signed a sponsorship agreement with Budweiser.^[237] The sponsorship returns Anheuser-Busch to the league, after it had sponsored the XFL in 2020 to promote Bud Light Seltzer.^[238] In March, Flux announced a multi-year sponsorship with the D.C. Defenders and St. Louis Battlehawks.^[239]

The UFL announcement was the number one story the week after its merger in St. Louis.^[258]

Writing for ProFootballTalk, Mike Florio was skeptical of the league's long-term odds given the history of spring football and attendance figures he saw as mediocre,^[259] while acknowledging "The U.F.L. (New York Times-style) can be F.U.N." citing a fake field goal in which punter/holder Brad Wing threw a touchdown pass to Alex Mollette, the team's center who was lined up as a tackle eligible.^[260] Jeff Kerr of CBS Sports lamented the lack of offensive output in Week 1 (noting a lack of effective running back play), while praising exciting special teams play, mentioning the Wing-to-Mollette touchdown and Jake Bates's 64-yard game-winning field goal; Kerr surmised that the league would need to improve its offensive line play.^[261] USA Today writer Jim Reineking noted that the former USFL squads, in general, seemed to have the upper hand in the opening week contests, while criticizing the league's decision to use the USFL rules on kickoffs (while acknowledging that the more conventional USFL formation did provide ample opportunity for returns) and starting the season around the crowded Easter holiday, arguing that the league would have been better served launching in the post-Super Bowl window as the XFL traditionally did.^[262] Barstool Sports declared "The UFL is risen!" with writer Clem crediting the Wing-to-Mollette play and Bates's field goal for reigniting his interest in spring football.^[263] SB Nation wrote of the Wing-to-Mollette play: "This is why we come to the UFL. For moments like this, plays like this. This is what makes football great."^[264]

On April 12, 2024 the Pro Football Hall of Fame stareted displaying the official game ball that was used by Michigan Panthers kicker Jake Bates, who converted a go-ahead 64-yard field goal with three seconds left, leading Michigan to a 18-16 victory over the St. Louis Battlehawks.^[265]