The United States Football League (USFL) has announced a multi-year media rights agreement with NBC Sports beginning in April 2022.
Under the agreement, NBC Sports will broadcast 21 USFL games during its inaugural season in 2022. Eight games will appear on NBC with another nine on USA Network and four on Peacock.
FOX Sports, which controls the league through USFL HoldCo, LLC, will televise 22 games in 2022. FOX will broadcast 12 games, while ten games will be televised by FS1.
“We’re excited to partner with the USFL and FOX Sports to present this new era of professional football,” said Pete Bevacqua, Chairman, NBC Sports. “With our multiple platforms across broadcast, cable, and streaming, football fans throughout the country will be able to experience the USFL’s opening season this spring.”
“We’re thrilled to have NBC Sports join FOX Sports as an official media partner of the new USFL,” said FOX Sports CEO and Executive Producer Eric Shanks, who will serve as Chairman of the USFL’s Board of Directors. “Like FOX, NBC has a reputation for excellence in football production, and the exposure both companies have committed to the USFL, including a combined 20 games on broadcast television, will provide fans unprecedented access all season long.”
Last month, the USFL unveiled the team names for all eight teams and their respective divisions:
NORTH DIVISION
Michigan Panthers
New Jersey Generals
Philadelphia Stars
Pittsburgh Maulers
SOUTH DIVISION
Birmingham Stallions
Houston Gamblers
New Orleans Breakers
Tampa Bay Bandits
The USFL’s regular-season will begin in mid-April and extends through mid-June. That will be followed by playoff semifinal games in each division and then a championship game between the division winners.
Although not officially announced by the USFL, it is expected that the entire 2022 regular-season will be played in Birmingham, Ala., with games held at Protective Stadium and Legion Field.
Good move by Fox to farm out some games to another network. I would suggest an extra network in addition to NBC for more coverage.
ESPN buried the XFL in 2001 and propped it up in 2020. The XFL games I watched on NBC I liked in 2001 only for ESPN to insist later how bad they were (because they didn’t have any broadcasting rights for it). When ESPN/ABC had broadcast rights for the XFL in 2020, they were far kinder to the idea. As villainous as ESPN/ABC is, them having a few games to cover would gain coverage positively for the USFL. ABC was the flagship network for the 1980s USFL…
When will the schedules for the USFL be released?
What’s the definition of insanity again?
This was a longshot at best even if they did everything right ….bit with playing all the games in one location the teams won’t even have fans or develop fan base…it will be a shit show and a larp
I will watch any live football.