2020 XFL season
The 2020 XFL season was the first season in the reboot of the XFL, and the second in the history of the XFL brand created and owned by professional wrestling magnate Vince McMahon, coming 19 years after the 2001 XFL season. The season began on February 8, 2020, with the DC Defenders hosting and defeating the Seattle Dragons. The league planned to have a ten-week regular season through April 12, with division championships April 18 and 19, with the XFL Championship scheduled for April 26 in Houston. In March 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the  United States, the XFL announced that the league would be cancelling the rest of the season, ahead of the league's suspension of operations and bankruptcy filing a month later. Teams. As with the 2001 XFL, the 2020 XFL operated eight teams, all centrally owned by the league's holding company, Alpha Entertainment LLC, as a single entity. Alpha Entertainment was spun off from WWE to keep the league's finances separate from the professional wrestling enterprise, with McMahon the sole proprietor. Two of the original league's metropolitan areas also received teams in the revival: New York and Los  Angeles. All eight teams received new brandings on August 21, 2019: the New York Guardians, DC Defenders, Tampa Bay Vipers, St. Louis BattleHawks, Dallas Renegades, Houston Roughnecks, Seattle Dragons, and Los Angeles Wildcats. Draft. The 2020 XFL Draft was held October 15 and 16, 2019, via conference call. Seventy-one players were allocated to each team in separate position drafts: one marquee quarterback allocated by the league to each team, ten skill positions, ten offensive linemen, ten defensive linemen and/or linebackers, ten defensive backs, and thirty players of any position. Due to the structure of the draft, there was no  true first overall selection. A supplemental draft was held in late November. Season structure. Preseason. Minicamps were held at each team's discretion in December 2019. The Wildcats hosted their minicamp at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas while the Renegades hosted theirs at Arlington High School. The Vipers hosted their minicamp at the renovated Plant City Stadium, which also served as the team's headquarters and practice venue during the season. The XFL held its training camps in Houston, Texas, from January 4–22, 2020. Each team trained at a different stadium in the city, with the hometown Houston Roughnecks  using their game stadium, TDECU Stadium. The other seven were as follows: The eight teams held informal scrimmages against each other. The league did not initially plan to host exhibition games, but the television networks requested preseason matchups in order to conduct trial runs for their broadcasts. These were held during the day midweek in late January and were closed to the public. Regular season. The league is divided into two divisions, East and West. Each team was given a ten-game schedule with no bye weeks, playing two games against each division rival (one home and one away) and  one game against each team in the other division. Cancellation. As the COVID-19 pandemic began to escalate in major American cities, there were concerns in regards to the spread of COVID-19. On March 11, the state of Washington imposed social distancing measures prohibiting the gathering of 250 or more persons. The league initially stated that a Seattle Dragons game against Los Angeles would be held behind closed doors as scheduled. McMahon was planning on defying a similar guideline issued by New Jersey and going ahead with a game between the Houston Roughnecks and New York Guardians at MetLife Stadium with  a full crowd, as New Jersey governor Phil Murphy had not made those guidelines mandatory at the time and the league was expecting a large attendance. After the National Basketball Association suspended all games after two players tested positive of the virus, further social distancing measures were announced elsewhere and an unnamed Dragons player developed symptoms of the virus (he later tested positive). The next day, the XFL announced it too canceled the remainder of their regular season. Playoffs. The playoffs were to feature four teams, two from each division. In contrast to the 2001 XFL (which used a crossover  approach in which teams faced the opposite division), the 2020 XFL would feature two division games, with the top two teams in each division facing off against each other to determine who represents the division in the XFL Championship. On February 13, 2020, the XFL formally announced that the name of the game would be the "XFL Championship" (reviving the alternate title of the first XFL Championship, which was also known as the Million Dollar Game) and would be held at TDECU Stadium in Houston, Texas. The league initially had hoped that the social distancing measures would expire later in  the season to allow the championship to be held. Any hope of resuming the season ended on April 10 with the league terminating almost all of its remaining employees and suspending operations. Star of the Week. The Star of the Week is a weekly award given out by the XFL. The XFL selects eight nominees (one from each team) based on who they feel had the best performance, or the performance that had the most impact, of that week in XFL play and the public votes on their choice. The two winners from Saturday and Sunday's polls go against  each other, and once again the public votes for the winner. Midseason awards. The midseason awards are given out by the XFL at the end of Week 5. These awards are given out first by the league selecting four nominees, and the public votes on who should win. The XFL also selected a mid-season All-XFL Team for the best players at each position. The Houston Roughnecks had the most number of players on the All-XFL midseason team with 6, with the St. Louis BattleHawks and Dallas Renegades tied for second at four players. The Tampa Bay Vipers  had three, and the other four teams with two each. Signees to other professional leagues. After the XFL season was cut short on March 12, 2020, players were allowed to sign with National Football League (NFL) or Canadian Football League (CFL) teams beginning on March 22. NFL signings. The following players signed with NFL teams: St. Louis BattleHawks safety Kenny Robinson was drafted by the Carolina Panthers in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL Draft, as the only NFL Draft-eligible player who played in the XFL in 2020. CFL signings. The following players signed with CFL teams: Attendance . Announced attendance figures for each home game. In the weekly columns, dashes (—) indicate away games, while bold font indicates the highest attendance of each team. Broadcasting. This was the first year of a three-year agreement with ESPN and Fox Sports to carry all 43 regular season and playoff games. During the regular season, ABC was scheduled to air ten Saturday games, five of them ended up being televised, and four Sunday games, airing only one of the four Sunday games. ESPN was to air five Sunday games, airing only two of them, and ESPN2 was to air two Sunday  games, airing only one of the two. Fox was to air seven Saturday games, five of the seven being televised, one Sunday game, which was televised, and two Thursday games, neither being played. Fox's main cable sports network, FS1, was to air nine Sunday games, with only four being played, and FS2 was to air one Saturday game, which was not played. ESPN and Fox were both scheduled to air one semifinal each, and ESPN was to air the championship game. All three never made the air. Vegas Stats & Information Network produced supplemental "BetCasts" for iHeartRadio for two games  each week, which featured commentary from a sports betting perspective. Viewership. "In millions of viewers"