The Big Lead

UFL schedule 2025: clear your Friday nights for (more) football

By J.P. Hoornstra

Mar 30, 2024; Detroit, MI, USA; St. Louis Battlehawks tight end Jake Sutherland scores a touchdown against the Michigan Panthers during the second half at Ford Field.
Mar 30, 2024; Detroit, MI, USA; St. Louis Battlehawks tight end Jake Sutherland scores a touchdown against the Michigan Panthers during the second half at Ford Field. / David Reginek-Imagn Images
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Season 2 of the UFL is nearly upon us. On Thursday, Fox Sports announced the broadcast schedule for the fledgling football league's 2025 season, and one day of the week is getting the lion's share of games: Friday.

The NFL owns Sunday, college football Saturday. If the dominant minor-league football alternative in the U.S. is going to own a different day of the week, Friday makes sense. Week 1 kicks off Friday, March 28, with an 8 p.m. ET game between the St. Louis Battlehawks and the Houston Roughnecks.

All games in the 8 p.m. Friday time slot will be broadcast on FOX.

“What we’re finding is, if you put a good quality product and a good sporting event on a Friday night, you can do some good business, particularly with the male audience,” Fox Sports' Bill Wanger told Sports Business Journal.

The 2025 season will consist of a 10-week regular-season schedule, with no bye weeks, followed by a two-week postseason consisting of XFL and USFL conference title games and the 2025 UFL Championship Game on June 14. 

All games air on FOX, ABC and ESPN. 

The 2024 season was the first in the history of the league that was created with the merger of the XFL and the USFL. As a developmental vehicle for the NFL, the UFL fills a void.

As a league with enough fan interest to support a long-term, sustainable business model, the jury is out. According to Sports Business Journal, television ratings in Year 1 were encouraging, if not quite enough to make the league profitable:

"The UFL averaged 850,000 viewers over its 40 regular-season telecasts this season across Fox, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and FS1, and viewership grew in the last week of the regular season and each postseason week. Broadcast networks pulled in higher viewership, averaging 945,000, and the cable networks saw 630,000 average viewers.

Those numbers are 34% higher than predecessor leagues USFL’s and XFL’s average viewership of 635,000 all last season. The championship on Fox drew the highest viewership this year with 1.596 million viewers."

- Sports Business Journal

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