Valiant Football League (2014-present)

2024 VFL Season
The Valiant Football League (VFL) Is an American virtual professional football league founded in 2012, originally as the UnitardZ Football League, and eventually as the United Football League until 2024. Consisting of sixteen teams, the VFL nineteen-game per-team league schedule leads to a playoff series consisting of eight teams compiled of the best six teams between the league's two conferences, the Atlantic Conference and the Pacific Conference, as well as the two champions of the conferences determined by the best teams from each side, which lead up to their championship game at the end of the season, formerly branded as the United Cup.
The Valiant Football League was originally announced as the UnitardZ Legends Football League before being re branded and renamed to the UnitardZ Football League before the start of the inaugural season. The league was renamed again five years later as the United Football League in 2019. Five years after the rebranding to the United Football League, the league again rebranded to the Valiant Football League in 2024, following the legal merger between the XFL and USFL, which took on the branding of the "United Football League."
The first team to the win the United Cup was the Connecticut Stampede, who defeated the Cincinnati Lynx in League Championship Game I. The most recent champions are the Cincinnati Lynx, who defeated the Connecticut Stampede in United Cup 10 to win their first United Cup in club history.
Following the completion of the 2024 VFL Season, the league announced its first plans for expansion since 2017, awarding two teams. The seventeenth team will be located in Virginia and will begin play in 2026, and the eighteenth team will be located in Toronto and will begin play in 2027.
== Season Format==
===Pre-Season===
From 2014-2015, the UnitardZ Football League held a two week pre-season schedule. The pre-season would not count towards the regular season standings. At the end of the 2017 season, the UnitardZ Football League would announce that the commencement of the return of a pre-season would be discussed in the off-season in the aftermath of the league. 
===Regular Season===
The regular season held thirty-six games before the playoffs, with the highest three standing teams in each conference reaching the post-season before the expansion of the league after the 2016 season. Following the introduction of four expansion teams in early-2017, the regular season went from thirty-six games a year, to forty-eight games a year. Typically, one week would be played over a stretch of two weeks, with half of the league's teams playing in the first week, and the other half of the league playing in the second week. When labeled, the six week season, would stretch over twelve weeks, and the weeks would be labeled by a one or a two. For example, the first half of the first week would be labeled, "Week 1-1" and the second half of the first week would be labeled, "Week 1-2" before transitioning into the second week. Before the start of the 2017 UFL regular season, It was announced that the league would no longer be holding games randomly throughout the week, and would instead have specific days of the week that games would be played, now that there were more teams. The league implemented a system, where out of the four games played in that calendar week, the first game of the week would take place on a Wednesday, being called "UFL Wednesday Night Football" while the remaining three games in that calendar week would be played on the following Saturday. This system was well received in the first implemented season, and would end up returning the following year. In 2019; the UFL transitioned the beginning of the season from starting in the middle of the summer, to the end of February roughly three weeks after the NFL's Super Bowl. The league also renamed itself to the "United Football League" and ended the double-week scheduling format, instead beginning a sixteen-week regular season in which teams would play one game every week, as opposed to every other week in the original format. The playoff format remained the same, and all sixteen teams in the league were given new logos, and the league's original logo was also updated, featuring a black football with "UFL" written in gray letters, and the laces and bands of the football being colored red on one side, and blue on the other to represent the Atlantic Conference and Pacific Conference respectively. Starting with the 2020 season, the league installed a new nineteen-game regular season, and cutting down the postseason to once again only include three teams from each conference, making the number of teams able to qualify for the playoffs from ten out of the sixteen teams in the league down to six out of the sixteen teams, further establishing the difficulty to make the postseason. Beginning with the 2021 UFL season, UFL ended Wednesday Night Football in favor of relocating the games to Friday, creating Friday Night Football.
In the 2023 UFL Season, the league began operating on a twenty-two week schedule. Each team played nineteen games and received three bye weeks. The playoffs then consisted of three rounds, including the United Cup, which was played on August 13, 2023. Starting with the 2024 VFL Season, the league continued with the twenty two-week, nineteen games per-team schedule, but altered their playoff format to mirror that of the Australian Football League's final-eight system. The playoffs would expand from six teams in total to eight, with the top two seeds belonging to the Atlantic Conference Football champions and the Pacific Conference Football champions, which would now be determined by the highest-finishing team within each conference. The remaining six will be comprised of the highest-remaining teams between both conferences, virtually ending the split between conferences for the postseason. In addition to this, the playoffs would last four weeks, consisting of four rounds leading up to the league's championship game.
===Post-Season===
The United Football League has gone through a number of post-season schedules. The original format included three teams from each conference, with the first seed receiving a bye week and playing the winner of a two-versus-three seed game in the conference championship game for an opportunity to represent their conference in the league championship game. Starting in the 2017 season, the post-season was expanded to feature five teams from each conference, with the first-through-third seeds receiving a bye week as the fourth-versus-fifth seed game would determine the competitor for the top-seed in the divisional round, whilst the two-versus-three seed game would also be played in the divisional round. The winners of those games would play in the conference championship game with the winner representing their conference in the league championship game. Starting in the 2020 season, the post-season was cut down to feature three teams from each conference once again, with the same seeding-charts as the original format, however, the first and second seeds would be earned by the division winners from each conference, and the third seed would be determined by the higher second-place team from both divisions.
The league continued with the twenty two-week, nineteen games per-team schedule in 2024, but altered their playoff format to mirror that of the Australian Football League's final-eight system. The playoffs would expand from six teams in total to eight, with the top two seeds belonging to the Atlantic Conference Football champions and the Pacific Conference Football champions, which would now be determined by the highest-finishing team within each conference. The remaining six will be comprised of the highest-remaining teams between both conferences, virtually ending the split between conferences for the postseason. In addition to this, the playoffs would last four weeks, consisting of four rounds leading up to the league's championship game.
==VFL Seasons==
(2014-2023 are referred to under their original branding as the UFL.)
2014 UFL Season - Connecticut Stampede def. Cincinnati Lynx in Spalding Ball I (Later referred to as "League Championship 1")
2015 UFL Season - Los Angeles Bolts def. New York Sentinels in Spalding Ball II (Later referred to as "League Championship 2")
2016 UFL Season - Vegas Demons def. New York Sentinels in Spalding Ball III (Later referred to as "League Championship 3")
2017 UFL Season - Connecticut Stampede def. Vegas Demons in Spalding Ball IV (Later referred to as "League Championship 4")
2018 UFL Season - Tampa Silverstars def. Atlanta Bravehearts in Spalding Ball V (Later referred to as "League Championship 5")
2019 UFL Season - Arizona Copperheads def. Atlanta Bravehearts in Spalding Ball VI (Later referred to as "League Championship 6")
2020 UFL Season - Atlanta Bravehearts def. Arizona Copperheads in League Championship Game 7, 42-10.
2021 UFL Season - Seattle Avengers def. Connecticut Stampede in United Cup 8, 34-30.
2022 UFL Season - Atlanta Bravehearts def. Cincinnati Lynx in United Cup 9, 22-20.
2023 UFL Season - Cincinnati Lynx def. Connecticut Stampede in United Cup 10, 48-41.
==VFL Teams==
===Atlantic Division (2014-present)===
Team 	Location 	Inception 	Home Field 	Championships
Connecticut Stampede	Hartford, Connecticut 	2014 	Pratt & Whitney Stadium at Rentschler Field (2014-present)	2014, 2017
Baltimore Capitals 	Baltimore, Maryland 	2014 	M&T Bank Stadium (2014-present) 	None
New York Sentinels 	Manhattan, New York 	2014 	Red Bull Arena (2022-present) 	None
St. Louis Eagles 	St. Louis, Missouri 	2014 	The Dome at America's Center (2017-present) 	None
Atlanta Bravehearts 	Atlanta, Georgia 	2014 	Sanford Stadium (2016-present) 	2020, 2022
Kansas City Core 	Kansas City, Missouri 	2014 	Children's Mercy Park (2014-present) 	None
Orlando Crusaders 	Orlando, Florida 	2017 	Exploria Stadium (2017-present) 	None
Fargo Oilers 	Fargo, North Dakota 	2017 	Fargodome (2020-present) 	None
Virginia VFL Club 	Norfolk, Virginia 	2026 (planned)	S.B Ballard Stadium (2026; planned) 	TBD
Toronto VFL Club 	Toronto, Ontario, Canada	2027 (planned)	BMO Field (2027; planned) 	TBD
===Pacific Division (2014-present)===
Team 	Location 	Inception	Home Field 	Championships
Angel City Swans 	Los Angeles, California 	2014 	Dignity Health Sports Park (2014-present)	2015
Seattle Avengers 	Seattle, Washington 	2014 	Lumen Field (2014-present) 	2021
Big Sky Black Bears	Helena, Montana 	2014 	Washington-Grizzly Stadium (2022-present)	2016
Arizona Copperheads	Tucson, Arizona 	2014 	Amkor Stadium (2021-present) 	2019
Cincinnati Lynx 	Cincinnati, Ohio 	2014 	TQL Stadium (2022-present) 	2023
Texas Watchmen 	San Antonio, Texas 	2014 	Alamodome (2014-present) 	None
Vancouver Outlaws 	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada	2017 	BC Place (2014-present) 	None
Tampa Silverstars 	Tampa, Florida 	2017 	Al Lang Stadium (2020-present) 	2018