Michigan and DC advance to UFL Championship as both 2nd-place teams knock off conference leaders, Stallions and Battlehawks

June 9, 2025 by CollegeFootballPoll.com Staff

The DC Defenders (7-4) are headed to the UFL Championship under interim head coach Shannon Harris, while Mike Nolan and the Michigan Panthers (7-4) will join them in St. Louis this Saturday night at 8 p.m. on ABC. The Stallions end their year with a 7-4 mark while the Battlehawks close at 8-3.

Just two weeks ago, Birmingham and Michigan took the field for their penultimate regular season game and the Stallions rode off with a 26-22 victory, their 7th in a row for Skip Holtz and Co. over Nolan and his team. 

Only a week ago, the Defenders were 13-8 losers at home to St. Louis. It was their second straight loss since clinching the XFL Conference playoff birth opposite the Battlehawks.

On Sunday, however, Birmingham could do little right and lost out on its bid to play for a fourth straight spring league championship and second straight UFL title. Meanwhile, St. Louis came up short for the second straight season in securing a bid to the league championship game in its home stadium.

Birmingham fell 44-29 to Michigan, and St. Louis lost 36-18 to DC.

The loss by the Stallions was the first to the Panthers since the original incarnation of the USFL back in 1983. Birmingham and Holtz are 39-8 since the USFL returned in 2022 and then merged in 2024 with the similarly reborn XFL to form the United Football League..

Nolan is now 18-15 as head coach of the Panthers, a job that came 15 years after his first and only other head coaching gig with the San Francisco 49ers from 2005-2008 where he went 18-37 before his dismissal halfway through the 2008 campaign. The long-time defensive assistant wasn't unemployed in the NFL for long as became the defensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos the following season.

Michigan QB Bryce Perkins, who finished his collegiate career with Virginia in 2019 after stints with Arizona State and Arizona Western, was 20-of-25 for 238 yards and a TD, and also added 34 yards on the ground and another score. Toa Taua led all rushers with 85 yards and 3 scores while Malik Turner had 99 yards on 6 grabs and was the recipient of the lone Perkins passing TD as turned a short pass into a 76-yard score.

The Panther defensive had heavy pressure all day on starting QB J'Mar Smith, as well as backup and former starter Matt Corrall. Kai Nacua had a 25-yard interception return of a Smith pass for a touchdown in the second quarter, and Corral was victimized by Arnold Tarpley III on a pick that led to a Michigan field goal and the game's final points.

Smith was just 4-of-10 for 102 yards with the 1 pick and an 18-yard TD pass to Jordan Thomas hat cut Michigan's lead to 14-6 in the second quarter. Thomas was also the recipient of a 4-yard TD pass from Corral that made 34-29 with 13:10 left in the game. Corral finished 12-of-25 for 147 with 2 TD passes and the one pick. Davion Davis had the other TD hookup with Corral (3 yards) a minute prior to Thomas' score.

In St. Louis, the Defenders earned their first championship appearance since the 2023 XFL title game when the 10-1 Defenders lost 35-26 to the 5-6 Arlington Renegades.

Jordan Ta'amu was 18-of-26 for for 204 yards, a TD and an INT for the Defenders. Max Duggan was held to just 7-of-14 for 105 yards with a pick and no scores while Brandon Silvers went 6-of-10 for 81, a TD and no picks for the Battlehawks.

DC scored first on a 42-yard pass play from Ta'amu to Seth Williams (2 catches, 61 yards) and it was 20-6 by halftime. That lead was increased to 26-6 on the Defenders' first possession of the second half. Then came a highlight-reel 12-yard touchdown catch by wide receiver Hakeem Butler from Silvers that made it 26-12, but the Battlehawks got no closer the rest of the way.

DC had 6 sacks and 9 TFL's of St. Louis QB's.

No home team won any of the four games in the final regular season week, or the playoffs.

It was anticipated that St. Louis would have easily drawn over 40,000 at home for the championship game had they defeated DC, especially, with the baseball Cardinals out of town next weekend. Last year, even without St. Louis in the game, the city supported the championship with a crowd of 27,396. There were 27,589 fans in the stands on Sunday at America's Center while Birmingham drew 10,928.

UFL Standings (Final Regular Season)

Legend:
SoS=Strength of Schedule
SoV=Strength of Victory
c=Clinched Conference
p=clinched playoff
x=won conference championship game
e=Eliminated

XFL Conference	W	L	PCT	PF	PA	Home	Road	Conf	ConfPct.	Streak	SoS	SoV
c-St. Louis Battlehawks	8	2	.800	231	163	4-1	4-1	4-2	.667	Won 6	.440	.413
p,x-DC Defenders	6	4	.600	225	224	3-2	3-2	4-2	.667	Lost 2	.480	.467
e-Arlington Renegades	5	5	.500	229	168	3-2	2-3	3-3	.500	Won 2	.500	.340
e-San Antonio Brahmas	1	9	.100	136	274	0-5	1-4	1-5	.167	Lost 6	.580	.600

 

USFL Conference	W	L	PCT	PF	PA	Home	Road	Conf	ConfPct.	Streak	SoS	SoV
c-Birmingham Stallions	7	3	.700	244	167	4-1	3-2	5-1	.833	Won 2	.460	.429
p,x -Michigan Panthers	6	4	.600	245	198	3-2	3-2	3-3	.500	Lost 2	.480	.350
e-Houston Roughnecks	5	5	.500	183	201	2-3	3-2	3-3	.500	Won 2	.500	.340
e-Memphis Showboats	2	8	.200	148	246	0-5	2-3	1-5	.167	Lost 2	.560	.400

Playoff Results - Conference Finals

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

USFL - Sunday, June 8 - Michigan 44, Birmingham 29 (10,928 at Liberty Stadium in Houston)at Protective Stadium in Birmingham | 3:00 PM | ABC
XFL - Sunday, June 8 - DC 36, St. Louis 18 (27,589 at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis)

UFL Championship Game

Saturday, June 14 at 8 p.m. on ABC - DC vs. Michigan at St. Louis.

Tracking Head Coach Records

Arlington - Bob Stoops (16-21)
Birmingham - Skip Holtz (39-8)
DC - Shannon Harris, interim (7-4)
Houston - Curtis Johnson (11-19)
Memphis - Jim Turner (2-8)
Michigan - Mike Nolan (18-15)
St. Louis - Anthony Becht (22-10)
San Antonio - Payton Pardee (1-7)