It’s football season once again.

As the college basketball postseason tournaments were crowning champions, the Major League Baseball season concluded its first week, and the minor league baseball season began, another football league opened its 2026 season.

If you’re a fan of watching professional football in the spring and summer, you should be happy that the newest iteration of a spring football league, the UFL, entered week two of its schedule. This is the third season for the league that was formed by the merger of the XFL and USFL in 2024.

If you’re not a fan, I can understand. It’s difficult to establish any sort of fandom or tradition for a league that comes and goes almost as frequently as the weather here in Oklahoma. Plus, we haven’t had a team to cheer for in either of these leagues since the Oklahoma Outlaws moved to Arizona after the 1984 season. It was the Oklahoma team’s only season in the former USFL.

Three teams folded at the end of last season, and this year there are three new teams in the UFL. Gone are the Michigan Panthers, Memphis Showboats and San Antonio Brahmas. The new teams are the Columbus Aviators, Kentucky Kings and Orlando Storm.

The other teams in the UFL are the Birmingham Stallions, the Dallas Renegades, DC Defenders, Houston Gamblers, and St. Louis Battlehawks. I suppose if you typically rout for the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL, or the sports teams in St. Louis, you may pic, the respective UFL team as your team.

When the old USFL began in 1983, I became a fan of the Birmingham Stallions, but I’m not sure why. The past few seasons, I’ve been routing for Birmingham and the Dallas Renegades since the team in Texas was coached by former University of Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops. However, Stoops, who coached the team in the XFL and then the UFL since 2020, was replaced this season by Rick Neuheisel. Stoops led the Renegades to the 2023 XFL Championship.

The UFL has become a testing ground for rules that the NFL may be considering putting into place. Former NFL referees Mike Pereira and Dean Blandino, two names that are familiar to NFL fans as they are now a part of the NFL broadcasts, oversee the UFL’s officiating and rules.

A few of the UFL rules that are different from the NFL include, kicking a field goal of 60 yards or more is worth four points instead of three, teams are not permitted to punt if they cross the 50-yard line into their opponent’s territory, except after the two-minute warning in each half, and the “Tush Push” is prohibited.

If you’re interested in watching the UFL, the games are broadcast over several different networks, so you’ll have to check the schedule on the website; www.theufl.com.

TULSA FOOTBALL OILERS

Last week we reported about the Tulsa Oilers Indoor Football League season kicking off with a 29-22 win over the San Antonio Gunslingers. The Oilers have a bye this week and will play this Sunday at Orlando at 3:00 p.m. CDT. The Oilers’ next home game is April 18 against Fishers Freight, 7:00 p.m. at the BOK Center.

Between the UFL and the Oilers indoor football team, there is plenty of football to watch this spring and summer, both on television and in person.

TULSA BEACON RADIO

Tune in to “Tulsa Beacon Weekend” radio show every week, featuring interviews with local and national guests, talking about everything from politics to family issues. This week, my guest will be Tom Graney, executive director of New Life Ranch. The show airs on Saturday at 12:00 p.m. CST on 970am KCFO.