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All 4 UFL Playoff spots clinched

May 19, 2025 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

Week 8 of the 10-week UFL season saw all four playoff spots get clinched, with three of them being repeats from 2024.

Michigan and Birmingham locked up the bids in the USFL Conference, just like they did a year ago in the United Football League's first season after a merger between the USFL and XFL. The UFL has already had to name Birmingham as the host site for their playoff game due to Ford Field being unavailable on that weekend.

Meanwhile, DC and St. Louis will go at it for the XFL Conference title with the Defenders scoring their first bid. San Antonio had the other spot a year ago and advanced to the championship game by upsetting the Battlehawks in St. Louis, but the Brahmas were blanked 25-0 by Birmingham a week later in the same venue. Including that loss, San Antonio has now lost 8 of its last 9 games and is just 1-7 in 2025.

This year's conference playoff winners will once again meet in St. Louis which continues to easily outdraw all other UFL markets. That game will take place on June 14.

Birmingham will be looking to keep its stranglehold on spring football titles with the Stallions looking to make it four-for-four, if you count their two championships in the USFL before the merger.

Arlington won the only XFL Championship in 2023, knocking off DC.

Week 8 opened on Friday night in San Antonio where 9,244 watched in excitement, and ultimately disappointment, as Memphis won the battle of 1-win teams in overtime, 24-22. Overtime in the UFL is a best-of-3 from the 5-yard line with each score worth two points, similar to an NHL or soccer overtime. The teams exchange one-play possessions and, on this night, the Showboats scored twice while the Brahmas only managed one successful try. Both teams had already been eliminated from the playoffs.

Saturday was a regional TV experiment on FOX with a pair of 1 p.m. kickoffs in St. Louis (vs. Birmingham) and Houston (vs. Michigan).

In St. Louis, the Stallions struck first on a 65-yard TD deep pass to the right from J'Mar Smith to Deon Cain on the first play of its second possession. The Smith-to-Cane connection would later add a 50-yard score on a short pass to the left on the Stallion's second play of its first possession in the second half. And a Smith-to-Cade Johnson pass down the left side covered 47 yards with 5:21 left in the game and put Birmingham back on top, 28-22. Smith played college football at Louisiana Tech for Skip Holtz who had led the Stallions for all four seasons in the USFL/UFL.

But St. Louis needed just five plays to answer with a 65-yard march in just over two minutes and the Battlehawks surged ahead on Jacob Saylor's two-yard conversion run after he scored the tying TD from one-yard out. Saylor's carried the ball on five of the six plays, including the PAT, for 39 yards, and Hakeem Butler had a 28-yard reception from Max Duggan who played QB for the 2022 season TCU Horned Frogs who went to the national title game against Georgia and got smoked 65-7.

Birmingham's last possession ended on a fumble at the St. Louis 44 with 16 seconds left in the game.

Over-all, the lead changed hands 6 times in the game in front of 30,114 fans. Both teams clinched USFL Conference playoff bids with Birmingham backing in after Houston was eliminated at home by Michigan in front of just 4,007. The loss dropped the Roughnecks to 3-5 while the Panthers improved to 6-2 with the 30-18 victory

The Roughnecks pulled within 14-12 after a Chris Blewitt 51-yard field goal with 1:42 to go in the first half, But the Panthers won the second half 16-6.

Sunday's lone-game was a proverbial barn-burner at Audi Field in Washington, DC where the Defenders escaped with a 33-30 win over Arlington to eliminate the Renegades and secure the last playoff spot for the home team. 14,638 showed up in the 20,000-seat soccer stadium that also hosts DC United (MLS) and the Washington Spirit (NWSL).

Arlington struck first on a 30-yard field goal before the Defenders reeled off fifteen unanswered points before the Renegades would score again. Arlington rallied to the final 3-point deficit with 3:54 still to play and had the ball back with 2:14 to go, but saw its hopes of a comeback victory dashed on an interception at the DC 30 win the final seconds.

UFL Standings

Legend:
SoS=Strength of Schedule
SoV=Strength of Victory
c=Clinched Conference
p=clinched playoff
e=Eliminated

XFL Conference	W	L	PCT	PF	PA	Home	Road	Conf	ConfPct.	Streak	SoS	SoV
DC Defenders	6	2	.750	196	187	3-1	3-1	4-1	.800	Won 2	.422	.417
St. Louis Battlehawks	6	2	.750	179	142	4-1	2-1	2-2	.500	Won 4	.453	.417
Arlington Renegades	3	5	.375	176	150	3-2	0-3	2-3	.400	Lost 4	.609	.417
San Antonio Brahmas	1	7	.125	117	212	0-3	1-4	1-3	.250	Lost 4	.578	.750

USFL Conference	W	L	PCT	PF	PA	Home	Road	Conf	ConfPct.	Streak	SoS	SoV
Michigan Panthers	6	2	.750	211	153	3-1	3-1	3-1	.750	Won 3	.438	.354
Birmingham Stallions	5	3	.625	172	136	3-1	2-2	3-1	.750	Lost 1	.469	.400
Houston Roughnecks	3	5	.375	140	168	1-3	2-2	2-3	.400	Lost 2	.469	.208
Memphis Showboats	2	6	.250	127	170	0-3	2-3	1-4	.200	Won 1	.563	.375

Week 8 Results

Home team BOLD, Attendance, venue and location in parenthesis.

Friday, May 16
Memphis 24, San Antonio 22 (9,244 at the Alamodome in San Antonio)

Saturday, May 17
St. Louis 29, Birmingham 28 (30,114 at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis)
Michigan 30, Houston 18 (,4007 at TDECU Stadium in Houston)

Sunday, May 18
DC 33 Arlington 30 (14,638 at Audi Field in DC)

Week 8 Games (all times eastern)

Friday, May 23 - St. Louis at San Antonio | 8:00 PM | FOX
Saturday, May 24 - Arlington at Memphis | 12:00 PM | ABC
Saturday, May 24 - Michigan at Houston | 3:00 PM | ABC
Sunday, May 25 - Arlington at DC | 4:00 PM | FOX

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