BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The newly re-formed USFL kicks off Saturday, April 16 and will play every game in the same city during its inaugural season.
The eight-team professional football league owned by Fox Sports will debut with the Birmingham Stallions against the New Jersey Generals. All the games will be in Birmingham, Alabama.
The game will be aired on both Fox and NBC, making it the first scheduled sporting event to air on competing broadcast networks since both CBS and NBC televised Super Bowl I in 1967.
From 1983-85, the original USFL played spring league games before folding.
“The first game played in any new league is itself historical and having the USFL’s inaugural game simulcast by NBC and Fox makes it even more so,” said Eric Shanks, Fox Sports CEO and Executive Producer. “It’s rare when two competitors can come together and see how cooperation can lead to long-term benefit.”
Most games will be at Protective Stadium, the 45,000-seat home to UAB games since opening in October. Others will be played at Legion Field.
The North Division includes the Generals, the Michigan Panthers, the Philadelphia Stars and the Pittsburgh Maulers.
The Stallions, Houston Gamblers, New Orleans Breakers and Tampa Bay Bandits will make up the South Division.
Each team will have 38-man rosters with seven players on a practice squad. Each player will receive base pay and be eligible for victory bonuses.
The new USFL will also introduce several twists to the traditional rules in the NFL and college football.
Among the new changes, scoring teams will now have a third option to attempt an extra point. A successful scrimmage play from the 10-yard line equals three points.
A second option to retain possession after scoring will be converting a fourth-and-12 from a team’s 33.
In overtime, each team’s offense will alternate plays against the opposing defense from the 2. Each successful scoring attempt will receive two points. The team with the most points after three plays wins. The subsequent attempts become sudden death if the score is tied after each team runs three plays. The overtime period will extend until a winner is declared.
Other distinctive rules are:
- Two forward passes from behind the line of scrimmage are legal.
- Each coach will be allowed one replay challenge. USFL Replay Command at FOX Sports Control Center in Los Angeles will make all replay decisions.
- All kickoffs will be from the 25. No kicking team member may line up any further back than 1 yard, while the receiving team must have a minimum of eight players in the set-up zone between their 35 and 45. After a kickoff travels 20 yards, the first touch must be by the receiving team. If an untouched kick becomes dead, the ball belongs to the receiving team at that spot.
- On punts, gunners may not line up outside the numbers and they cannot be double-team blocked until the ball is kicked.
- The clock will stop for first downs inside 2 minutes of the second and fourth quarters.
- The penalty for defensive pass interference will mirror the NCAA rule with exceptions. First, a defender intentionally tackling a receiver beyond 15 yards would become a spot foul. Also, the penalty will be a spot foul if it occurs 15 yards or less from the line of scrimmage or a 15-yard penalty from the line of scrimmage if the spot of the foul is beyond 15 yards.
- If a pass does not cross the line of scrimmage, there can be no pass interference or ineligible player downfield penalties.