Saturday February 8^th will mark the return of the XFL. Originally debuted in 2001, the XFL was a disaster that only had one season before being discontinued until its revival in 2020. In the past the XFL had very poor planning from ownership, and the viewership was almost nonexistent. This go around, Oliver Luck, father of NFL quarterback Andrew Luck, is the CEO and commissioner of the league. He has brought through planning and strategic marketing to the brand that has gotten many people excited for the reintroduction of the league.

I think that the league will be a much bigger success this time around because of a variety of factors. First off, the XFL season will be played in a time where no other major football is being played. Football is arguably the most popular sport in America so viewers are craving football all year round. The XFL has also made a lot of fundamental changes to the sport of football that is designed to make games more high scoring, fast paced, and more entertaining to watch. Rule changes include taking kicking extra points totally out of the game. From now on, points after touchdown can be offensive plays tried from the 2-yard line (1 point), the 5-yard line (2 points), and the 10-yard line (3 points). This will add more strategy in the game too, because no lead is safe when a team can score anywhere from 6 to 9 points for every touchdown scored. Kickoffs and punts will be drastically different in order to cause more excitement. As of right now in the NFL, kickoffs and punts are 2 of the most boring plays in the game, so the XFL is looking for ways to speed up games and make them much more exciting.

The Alliance of American Football, or AAF, tried to do something similar to the XFL in creating a new league for the time when NFL football wasn’t on television. The AAF was created in 2018 and only had 1 season in 2019. Much like the first XFL season, this league was not very popular and tanked financially, causing the league to disband in April of 2019. Many people see these failed attempts and wonder how the XFL 2.0 will be any different. I definitely think it will be an uphill battle, but I do think that the XFL is taking bigger steps to ensure that their league will be successful.  

The XFL has already started marketing to the public much better than leagues in the past have. With tools like social media and online advertisements, the XFL has a much better base to market to a very wide audience. Another thing that I think will help the growth of the XFL is the hiring of big names to give the league some validity. For example, Bob Stoops, former head coach of the University of Oklahoma, will be the head coach of the Dallas Renegades. Lots of former NFL players have already signed contracts to play in the league as a chance to bring some viewers over to the league.

I’m very interested to see what is going to happen with this league and see if it continues to be in affect after its initial season. Most of these leagues fail after just one year so if the XFL can get over the hump, it could be on for a long time.