UFL Weekly report: Playoffs, Ben Dinucci, Expansion and Friday nights

Intro what's up everyone this is Xavier your host and welcome to the 210 Stockyard all right guys I know I've been missing for about a week or two I'm sorry I've been making a lot of important business decisions and it honestly has taken up a lot of my personal time but I'm back just in time before week 8 the major event coming out of week s was the homecoming for AJ Stallions Win McCarron he returned to Alabama to take on the number one Birmingham stallions this game actually was really good it did live up to the hype it was the number one offense against the number one defense there was over seven lead changes in the game and when it was all said and done Birmingham ended up winning the game 30 to 26 a narrow four-point Victory they remain undefeated and spoiled ajj McCarron's homecoming and while it was a good game I can't be completely satisfied with the win mainly because I'm unsure if the injury to AJ McCarron's ankle was intentional or not and I'll leave it at that after week seven both conferences Head to Head remain at seven and seven a lot of sevens here so both conferences still split the head-to-head matchup neither conference has really been more dominant over the other yet this season and we still have three more weeks remaining in the regular season schedule to see if either conference can take the lead the Birmingham stallions had already Playoffs clinched a playoff spot and after week seven the Michigan Panthers will join them the usfl conference Championship matchup is now set and so that means that yep teams have already been eliminated on the usfl side side the Memphis showboats and Houston Ru necks are mathematically eliminated and the XFL defending Champion Arlington Renegades have been mathematically eliminated from the XFL side the usfl conference Championship game is set to take place Saturday June 8th at 2m Central on ABC HomeField has not been decided yet as both teams can still clench HomeField Advantage now the big news for the past two weeks that everyone's been talking about is Ben Dinucci denucci not more than a week ago he tweeted out that he had been released by the Denver Broncos it's all a part of the journey and he's excited for what's to come and for those of you that don't know or don't remember Ben denucci last year in the XFL was number one in passing yards number one in completions he was number two in touchdowns and number three in completion percentage he led the Seattle sea dragons to the 2023 XFL playoffs and last but not least he was also an NFL quarterback the entirety of the 2023 NFL season he had already previously expressed his desire or perhaps interest in still playing in Spring football when he tweeted this out on April 17th he kept it short and sweet can't lie I missed the XFL trust me Ben we miss you too so of course all the hype was what team would get him where is he going to end up and if you didn't see he kind of already squashed that when he tweeted out as much fun as it would be I'm not interested in playing in the UFL this season appreciate everyone who reached out over the last 3 days my take away from this is the key word this season and for me it makes the most sense that he not come back this year I firmly believe that the Seattle Sea Dragons will be one of the teams that are going to be resurrected for the 2025 season and part of my reasoning also has to do with this tweet that he also put out where he says asking for a friend what would it cost to buy the Seattle sea dragons and bring them back next year he directly tagged the UFL and then jokingly says I'm trying to be owner president coach and QB now the crazy thing is there's always some truth behind every joke and I 100% believe that it is very possible for bonucci to one make a comeback and obviously be the starting quarterback for the Seattle Sea Dragons but two to somehow negotiate in his contract or in his return that he be named part owner of the team or maybe allowed first dibs at purchasing the team when it becomes available the league has already confirmed that expansion is part of the plan for the Expansion 2025 season and as I just mentioned I think the Seattle sea dragons are an obvious no-brainer as one of the expansion teams the XFL still owns the rights to the name and likeness of the logo the Sea Dragon social media still has a very good following at 112,000 followers here on Instagram they still have a stadium deal in place with Lumen field and again the number one factor working for them is banucci himself already being popular and a local fan favorite the buzz and the hype is already there all he needs to do is come back back as for the usfl side very recently two patents were filled for the name and likeness of the Canton bulldogs and I didn't know this is actually a very old team they originated back in the 1920s here's a picture of the 1923 Bulldogs looks like they'll be making a comeback Caden also has a very good housing situation there for a team they have the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium which seeds 23,000 people that's perfect for spring football kanton makes a lot of sense this is a great fit next up they filed the patent for the name and likeness of the Nashville tuners so obviously we can deduce that one they'll be playing in Nashville and two their name is the tuners and I'm assuming it has to do with music so I just came up with this generic logo what do you guys think Nashville also has a very good Stadium solution in geodis park this is where the Nashville FC soccer team plays this Stadium seats 3,19 people and once again this is a perfect fit for spring football I personally love the idea of them playing on a soccer pitch kind of like how the DC Defenders do in Audi field I think that is perfect this city and stadium also make a lot of sense and that just leaves us asking one final question who and where will the final team be it's obviously going to be an XFL team the XFL still has the right to the name and likeness of the Vegas vipers I think attempting to bring them back in Vegas would be a very stupid idea it just failed there and I hope they stay away from Vegas the Vipers were previously the temp B vipers but I would prefer if the UFL stayed out of cities that already had NFL teams and I would honestly love to see another city that's actually hungry for football get a team they still have the Orlando Guardians though the fan base isn't really there just because of how bad they performed last year previously they weree the New York Guardians and you can't forget they also still own the rights to the LA Wildcats and as much as I love and want the idea of a team a UFL team being in San Diego I I would love for them to be the fleet once again the league has already confirmed California is out of the picture mainly as to do with tax laws there I'm sure there's some other political you know things involved but for now the league is going to stay away from California sorry guys I know I wanted it to so what city do I think is going to get the expansion team well there's really no way of knowing but my first pick is Oklahoma City I think this makes a lot of sense there's no pro football in Oklahoma it's definitely a football city and state it's a pretty close traveling distance from Arlington so Oklahoma City just makes a lot of sense my second I guess ideal city for the league would be Salt Lake City Utah Utah is another state that doesn't have pro football they do have college football they do have football fans I'm aware that it's a heavy religious city and state but I do think that the community there would definitely support football and again it's not that much of an inconvenience travel-wise now of course of course there are more cities in States I would want to dive into that cuz I could go on forever but I just gave you my top two cities and to piggyback off of the expansion topic James Larson here of pfn tweets out that Firdays? if there is expansion next year in the UFL which does seem like it's a legitimate possibility a Friday night slot would make sense if there were five to six games per week and he makes this comment because the UFL Newsroom reported that the UFL is set to air Friday night games in 2025 in my initial thought process on this is I'm not too keen on it I would really rather them do a Monday night game I don't care if it looks like they're trying to copy the NFL I mean we're already copying the NFL we're already playing pro football we're already playing on Sundays on ESPN and ABC and fox so why not tack on Monday Night Football I do love Monday Night Football I think it's a great way to grab ratings I mean it's going to be the only game on on Monday night and I'm not totally against Friday Night Football I do love the Friday Night Lights my only concern is that Friday nights tend to be a more um socially active night people want to go out you know they go to clubs bars movies dinner you finish out the work week if you're not a home body you're out and about so my concern is that if a football game is being played on Friday night it might not have as much viewership interest as a Monday night but who knows we might actually see four days of football one Friday night game two on Saturday two on Sunday and then one on Monday night and that's a lot of football over a weekend this is the week eight slate these are all the Week 8 games that are coming up looks like it's going to be a usfl Saturday followed by XFL Sunday all the matchups on each day our inner conference matchup there is no out of conference matchup so the first game that we get to kick things off it's the Memphis showboats versus the Michigan Panthers Memphis is pretty much playing for pride at this point Michigan is playing for HomeField Advantage I'm honestly not expecting fireworks in this game but I think the obvious pick for the winner here is going to be the Michigan Panthers I'll take them over Memphis by 12 and and I suppose I'll take the under in this game final game on Saturday night is the Birmingham stallions against the Houston Ru necks and it's pretty much the same thing Houston's playing for pride the stallions are playing for HomeField advantage and once again I think the obvious Victor in this matchup is going to be the Birmingham stallions I'll take Birmingham by 14 and I'll also take the over in this game and the first game for XFL Sunday will be the DC Defenders taking on the St Louis battle Hawks this one's on ABC at 11:00 p.m. central St Louis can clench a playoff spot in if they beat DC if the Defenders win they stay in the playoff race I just don't know which DC team is going to show up to this game if they play anything like they did last week this one could be a blowout but in any case I am taking the battle Hawks to win this one I think St Louis wins by 14 I like the over in this matchup as well and the final matchup Brahmas will be my San Antonio bahas against the Arlington Renegades San Antonio clinches a playoff spot with a win and a DC loss the the Brahma return to home sweet home to take on the Arlington Renegades on Sunday the 19th at 3:00 p.m. central I'll be there I'll be one of the loud guys in the front row screaming his head off the whole game sorry guys that's just how I roll and going into week eight the brahmas do own the Texas triangle the lone star showdown the Texas three-step the Texas standoff whatever you guys want to call it the brahmas have beaten both the rough necks and renegades already we just have to close out the Renegades one more time I'm pretty confident that Will based on the fact that the brahmas do have three of the top five leading tacklers in the league Jordan Mosley Devonte Becket and George Williams have all been doing great this season and I'm expecting to see a lot more tackles and a lot more sacks it's a good thing our defense is ranked pretty high because the brahmas have announced that they are still going to start or go with Quinton dormy as qb1 I suppose I'm okay with this uh um I like that the team's still giving him another chance if dorm gets flustered again and frustrated or doesn't seem to have control of the offense like he did last week I have no doubt in my mind that they're not going to hesitate to call in Kevin Hogan once again the former Browns quarterback actually did pretty good stepping in and leading the brahmas from to that come from behind Victory and that's the wrap up folks Close once again sorry for the delay I appreciate you guys sticking around and as always what are your thoughts are you excited for the week eight matchups do you think that we'll see the remainder of the playoff teams solidify after week eight what do you think about Ben denucci and him coming back what are your thoughts on expansion I'm very curious about that please like And subscribe if you haven't already hit that notification tab too that way you know when a new video comes out thanks again for watching and hearing me out as always I'm Xavier your host and stay tuned for more episodes of the 210 Stockyard