UFL 2025 Opening Weekend Results, Standings, Attendance

March 29, 2025 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

The second season of The United Football League got underway on Friday night with St. Louis roughing Houston 31-6, With the players performing without a collective bargaining agreement. The lack of a CBA, or any definitive movement in securing one, could turn the league upside down in a heartbeat.

The total attendance across four games was 33,868 as the league opened against a myriad of competition from other sports, including the opening weekend of the MLB and the Sweet Sixteen/Elite Eight of the NCAA men's and women's basketball tournaments.

As for Friday night's game, the Battlehawks opened an 18-0 halftime lead and never looked back as far too few fans looked on from the stands. Houston was 7th out of 8 teams in attendance in 2024 with just 7,056 and they barely surpassed that average for the season opener with 7,124 reported as the official attendance. Drop the "4" off the end of that total and that's what it looked like on TV..... 712.

As we said in our preview of the weekend's action, the league should have had enough sense to schedule the prime time opener on FOX in St. Louis where the Battlehawks led all other teams by a huge margin in attendance, and was nearly 5-to-1 over Houston with 34,365.

It also didn't help that Houston was the worst team in the league a year ago at 1-9 after winning the XFL South in 2023

The St. Louis offense was clicking on Friday while the Houston offense was quite offensive to watch. The Battlehawks racked up the second-most yardage for a single game in UFL history with 460, just shy of Birmingham's 466 in week 6 against Memphis a year ago.

St. Louis also set a new single game rushing record with 273, blasting the old mark of 213 set by Birmingham at Houston last year. Running back Jarveon Howard had a UFL record 74-yard run for St. Louis' final points.

Meanwhile, the Roughnecks were held to a paltry 170 total yards for the game.

Running back Jacob Saylors scored the league's first points of 2025 on a 4-yard run with 4:44 to play in the first quarter. Qwynnterrio Cole set up the drive with an interception of Anthony Brown on his first pass of the game. Brown was 5-of-11 for 21 yards and 2 picks. Trailing 31-0 in the fourth quarter, backup QB Nolan Henderson finally put Houston on the board on a 5-yard pass with just 2:29 to play.

Saylors finished with 98 yards on just 16 carries and Howard finished with 115 on only 13 totes. Manny Wilkins was efficient, completing 17-of-22 for 189 yards with no picks and no TD passes, but had a pair of 1-yard keepers for scores.

St. Louis opens at home next Sunday at 6:30 eastern time against San Antonio on FS1.

Arlington 33, San Antonio 9

Less than 24 hours after Jarveon Howard had a UFL record 74-yard run for St. Louis, Kalen Ballage eclipsed the mark with  a 77-yard dash to the house for Arlington in the Renegades' 33-9 win over San Antonio. Arlington built a 30-3 lead before the Brahmas finally found the endzone with just 4:09 left in the game.

Former Michigan Wolverine running back De'Veon Smith produced an interesting stat line as he carried the ball 3 times for 3 yards to score 3 touchdowns on 3 1-yard runs. All 3 plays were ran out of the "T' formation.

The attendance was 10,117, barely above the 2024 average of 9,887 for Arlington home games.

Michigan 26, Memphis 12

A pitiful attendance of 4,373 showed up in Memphis and witnessed their Showboats fall, 26-12, to the Panthers. Memphis was driving late when Kai Nacua had an 80-yard pick-6 of QB Troy Williams, reaching paydirt with just 23 seconds left in the game.

DC 18, Birmingham 11

The Defenders scored the upset of spring football's three-time defending champions, dropping the Stallions to 32-5 all-time. 12,254 were in attendance, a little under last year's average of 14,143. Neither QB was sharp as Alex McGough wound up 10-for-23 for 89 yards, a TD and an INT while missing on his last 7 passes of the game. McGough was also sacked 7 times after halftime.

Jordan Ta'amu was just 17-of-37 for 211 yards,a  TD and a pick for DC.

Defenders head coach Reggie Barlow,left the team to take the head coaching job at Tennessee State a week before the opener..

UFL Standings

Here is how the league breaks down, and the standings after Week 1:

XFL Conference

Team	Won	Lost	Pct.	PF	PA	Home	Road	Conf.	Conf. Pct.	Streak	SoS	SoV
Arlington Renegades	1	0	1.000	33	9	1-0	0-0	1-0	1.000	Won 1	.000	.000
St. Louis Battlehawks	1	0	1.000	31	6	0-0	1-0	0-0	.000	Won 1	.000	.000
DC Defenders	1	0	1.000	18	11	1-0	0-0	0-0	.000	Won 1	.000	.000
San Antonio Brahmas	0	1	.000	9	33	0-0	0-1	0-1	.000	Lost 1	1.000	.000

USFL Conference

Team	Won	Lost	Pct.	PF	PA	Home	Road	Conf.	Conf. Pct.	Streak	SoS	SoV
Michigan Panthers	1	0	1.000	26	12	0-0	1-0	1-0	1.000	Won 1	.000	.000
Birmingham Stallions	0	1	.000	11	18	0-0	0-1	0-0	.000	Lost 1	1.000	.000
Houston Roughnecks	0	1	.000	6	31	0-1	0-0	0-0	.000	Lost 1	1.000	.000
Memphis Showboats	0	1	.000	12	26	0-1	0-0	0-1	.000	Lost 1	1.000	.000

Week 1 Results (Home Team in BOLD):

Friday
St. Louis 31, Houston 6 (7,124)

Saturday
Arlington 33, San Antonio 9 (10,117)

 

 

Sunday
DC 18, Birmingham 11 (12,254)
Michigan 26, Memphis 12 (4,373)

Week 2 Games (all times eastern)

Birmingham at Michigan, Friday, April 4 | 8:00 PM | FOX
Memphis at DC, Saturday, April 5 | 8:00 PM | ABC
Houston at Arlington | Sunday, April 6 | 12:00 PM | ESPN
San Antonio at St. Louis | Sunday, April 6 | 6:30 PM | FS1