UFL Live - United Football League News and Fan Forum

I promise to get back to United Football League news here shortly. I would talk about it all the time, but frankly there hasn’t been much news other than “all’s well” coming out of the UFL. So on to the All American Football League for one more post and then I promise to temper down on the reports from the glorified college football spring league.

Despite what my source indicated, tickets are now on sale for all six teams in the AAFL. That’s a good sign that hopefully means more financial backing has been lined up.

Husker Extra reports that there is already talk of adding an AAFL expansion team in the Cornhusker state. That seems like a natural step if the idea of spring “post-grad” college football takes off.

Also from Nebraska comes AAFL Source. In addition to news on the league, looks like they’ll try some Fantasy Football too. That’s something I’d like to try here if there is an interest.

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The All American Football League marches on toward an eventual April 2008 kickoff. It has just held a successful draft where the six teams (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Michigan, Tennessee, and Texas) drafted players to fill out their rosters.

If you want to watch the event yourself, it looks like the live recording of the draft is still available online. (Nice introductory graphics, btw.) The first few minutes of the show serve as an introduction to the league and the reasoning behind it. A good primer for anyone interested in learning more.

Each team was able to protect 40 players, so the much of the talent has already been signed. Still 300 Players were drafted on Saturday (download the PDF from the AAFL site). Here are the top twelve:

1. Yisrael, Zarah ARK OLG Troy
2. Randall, Bryan TEN QB Virginia Tech
3. Crouch, Eric TEX QB Nebraska
4. Kresser, Eric FLA QB Marshall
5. Koral, David MIC QB UCLA
6. Sewell, Josh ALA OLC Nebraska
7. Scharff, Scott ALA DLE Stanford
8. Wormley, Rodney MIC DLE Temple
9. Smith, Thomas FLA DLE Pittsburgh
10. McCutchean, Freddy TEX DLT San Jose State
11. Sandidge, Tim TEN DLT Virginia Tech
12. Rogers, Nicholas ARK DLE Georgia Tech

Darren Heitner of the Sports Agent Blog attended the Florida team draft and after party. Most of the 40 protected players were in attendance and, with close ties to the University of Florida, the event sometimes felt like a reunion party/pep rally. Also interesting to note was the presence of potential investors. Let’s hope enough of them signed on to keep the league in the black!

One final note: after the draft, tickets to the Florida games went on sale. So now you can buy tickets to Arkansas or Florida games. The other four teams still haven’t listed dates.

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The United Football League hasn’t played its first snap but already gamer Outspoknpoet is dreaming of how the UFL can capitalize by licensing its gaming rights to 2K Sports, the same company that the NFL recently screwed over.

I believe that if Cuban were to spearhead a sponsorship campaign for 2K Sports UFL Football there would be a little more popularity for the game in reality and in virtual reality. In this first installment, you could open up many options for the game itself. Sense the UFL doesn’t exist besides in the minds of dreamers like Cuban and myself, it would open up creativity in the video game.

From what I’ve heard the team behind the UFL is doing a good job negotiating all sorts of rights. From television to uniform sponsorships, and probably even video games. Expect the UFL to make a strong move in all arenas. (Read)

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Well, this is crappy news. My inside source CapedCowboy says that the AAFL is in need of some financial wizardry or its very unlikely they’ll make it to kick off. The AAFL may still hold their draft this weekend, but they’re not yet selling tickets in any market beyond Arkansas. If additional financing doesn’t come through, it may be sunset for the All American Football League.

I’ve emailed the league to get their take on this rumor. I’ll let you know what I hear back.

Don’t let the rumors spoil your draft party this weekend. You can catch the AAFL draft this Saturday on many local cable stations or via online streaming. Let’s hope that the draft generates enough excitement to spur some funding magic and make the first season a success. All the athletes, coaches, staff, and fans who’ve gotten involved with the league so far deserve a chance to show they have a great product.

One note about the draft. Local teams are being allowed to protect 25 of their players from the local schools. These will be the star athletes that the owners hope will draw in the fans who want to see their college favorite hit the field again.

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The Unsportsmanlike Conduct blog (wish I’d thought of that name) has a nice post titled “USFL Who?” on some reasons why the AAFL will likely succeed as a league. In short, good money managment and working with the NFL instead of against it. He also mentions the UFL in passing and reminds us that NFL Europa didn’t do so well, so maybe the UFL might want to rethink those international franchises. Funny Stuff. (Read)

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A couple things floating around ‘the internets’ these last few days have me wondering if something isn’t afoot. For instance, it’s probably unrelated, but Edelman, the league’s PR firm, has just opened an office here in Orlando. But maybe it’s not unrelated at all since the UFL has stated they want to base their mini-camp out of Orlando and have a team here.

Also of note is this post on the Refstripes.com discussion board claiming two Big 12 referees have left their jobs to join the UFL’s zebra league. If true, at least we know that the UFL is doing some sort of hiring behind the scenes.

Finally, there’s Tony Sparano moving from Dallas to the helm of the Dolphins. Not that that has anything to do with the UFL. Except to say that there are still a lot of talented assistant coaches in the NFL who might be looking to make the leap to the UFL this fall.

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With the NFL regular season over and post-season nearing its climax, it’s time for the two upstart professional football leagues to assert their existence a bit. All those fans who don’t have a team in playoffs will be looking for the next team to support.

In that arena, the All American Football League has a bit of a lead of the United Football League. With their plan to start play this spring, teams prepping for the January 26th draft and tickets are already on sale for some of the games.

As befits their close ties with the NCAA, the AAFL blog has a wrap up of the 2007 College Football Season and a list of the 25 teams to watch out for in 2008. That’s great, but I think I would prefer more “inside football” stuff.

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