On January 25th, 2018 Vince McMahon announced the XFL would be returning February 8th, 2020. We’re a year out from the relaunch of the XFL, so let’s go over what we know so far.

Executive Staff

Oliver Luck

Nearly six months after the it was made public that the XFL would be returning, Oliver Luck was named the Commissioner and CEO. “The XFL will be a labor of love as I get to combine my experiences as a player and executive,” Luck told ESPN in an email. “I’m thrilled to have this unique opportunity to reimagine the game that has been a constant in my life for 40 years.”

Luck left his leadership role at the NCAA, where he oversaw the organization’s regulatory functions, including eligibility requirements and academic affairs, and the eligibility center.

He previously served as the president of NFL Europe and as the chief executive officer of the Houston Sports Authority, which helped bring the Texans to Houston as an NFL expansion team in 2002.

Luck also played quarterback for the Houston Oilers and at West Virginia University, where he was inducted into the Mountaineers’ Hall of Fame and later spent four years as athletic director. He also served on the College Football Playoff selection committee in 2014.

Doug Whaley

November 8th the XFL announced Former Buffalo Bills General Manager Doug Whaley would be joining the league as the senior vice president of football operations. At the time, Whaley was  the director of college recruiting for the NFL Players Associations’ Collegiate Bowl. He remained in that role for the remainder of 2018.

With more than 20 years of professional football experience, Whaley spent the majority of his career with the Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks. He was with the Bills from 2010 to 2017, first as Assistant General Manager and Director of Pro Personnel, then Assistant General Manager and Director of Player Personnel before his elevation to General Manager, a position he held from 2013 to 2017.

Jeffrey Pollack

Last month Jeffrey Pollack was named the President and CEO. Pollack comes to the XFL from the Los Angeles Chargers, where he was Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer and Special Adviser.

With a 25-year track record, Pollack began his career in sports in 1994 when, as the founding President and Publisher, he created and launched The Sports Business Daily. He then joined the National Basketball Association in 1998 as a Strategic Communications Consultant and also served as the league’s Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications. In 2001, he was named Managing Director of Broadcasting and New Media for NASCAR Digital Entertainment.

From 2005 to 2009, Pollack served as Commissioner of the World Series of Poker and Vice President of Sports and Entertainment Marketing for Caesars Entertainment. He has also served as Executive Chairman of the Professional Bull Riders and Executive Chairman of Federated Sports and Gaming.

Coaching Staff

Bob Stoops – XFL Dallas

Just yesterday former Oklahoma Head Coach was the first Head Coach/GM announced for the upcoming XFL. Stoops was introduced in a news conference Thursday by Oliver Luck, commissioner of the XFL.

“At first I thought it probably wouldn’t be for me,” Stoops said. “But through our discussions as a family, started to think this would fit us correctly.”

“I was also excited about starting something from the ground floor,” Stoops said. “To hiring coaches, and then you gotta accumulate your players, get your organization set up, it reminds me of when I first arrived at Oklahoma. I thought one of the best things I ever did in my career was getting my first staff together at OU. … That’s exciting to me. The opportunity to put it together and help it grow.”

Pep Hamilton – XFL DC

Former Michigan assistant coach Pep Hamilton is expected to be taking a job in the XFL, according to a report from Bruce Feldman of The Athletic.

On Thursday, Feldman reported that Hamilton, who left Michigan earlier this week to pursue other opportunities, is expected to become the head coach and general manager of Washington’s XFL team. No details about a potential contract were mentioned. It’s reported that Hamilton has been preparing for this position for at least a week, assembling a staff for his new role.

Locations

Although the locations leaked on the internet early, December 5th, 2018 they were made official. The XFL hosted a press conference at MetLife Stadium where they officially announced the eight cities and venues that would host the upcoming XFL. Both Vince McMahon and Oliver Luck spoke at the event, with representative from each location speaking after the reveal. A list of the inaugural cities can be seen below.

• Dallas – Globe Life Park
• Houston – TDECU Stadium
• Los Angeles – Dignity Health Park (Formerly StubHub Center)
• New York – MetLife Stadium
• St. Louis – The Dome
• Seattle – Centurylink Field
• Tampa Bay – Raymond James
• Washington DC – Audi Field

The same day season ticket reservations became available on the official XFL website, as well as a variety of different merchandise. The locations seemed to catch a lot of people by surprise, mainly for the fact that all but one of the locations also hosts an NFL franchise.

TV

We don’t have all the details on broadcast partners just yet, but on January 22nd it was reported that the XFL is in talks with both ESPN and Fox for broadcasting rights.

Sources say the league expects to have at least two-thirds of its games appear on broadcast television, underscoring the league’s strategy to get its games in front of the biggest potential audiences.

If a deal is made it would see games on both ABC and Fox, as well as ESPN and FS1. So far, talks do not involve ESPN’s streaming service, ESPN+.

Rules

The league is considering keeping the game clock moving after incomplete passes and when a player runs out of bounds. The clock would only stop during the last two minutes of the half. The possibility of shortening the over-all play clock has been brought up as well.

“Fans want to minimize idle time and speed up the game,” said Sam Schwartzstein, the XFL’s director of operations.

The league plans on having designated ball spotters to spot the ball immediately after the play ends. This would take the responsibility out of the referee’s hands.

The league is also looking at revamping the kickoff. The idea is that the kicking team would have to wait until the receiving team catches the ball before running downfield.

They are also looking at a tiered extra point system that would eliminate the kicking extra point. Teams would have to score from the 2-yard line to get the extra point. They would line up at the 5-yard line for 2 points and if they want 3 points then they would have to line up at the 15-yard line.

League Details

No players have been announced yet, but let’s discuss what we do know. The league will have a 40 man roster 45 man roster with a 7 player practice squad, which is slightly fewer than the NFL’s 53 man roster. The season will comprised of 10 games for each team, a 4 team semi-finals and 1 championship game. Players will be required to stand for the National Anthem, and the league is not interested with players that have a storied criminal past.

Each team will be directly owned by the XFL. Vince McMahon will, at least in name, have unilateral control over every team in the league. Since it’s not a franchise model, the league will sport a uniform salary cap and punishment system, among other factors.

Another focus of the upcoming XFL season is to have faster games. McMahon said that “sitting and watching a three, three and a half hour game is laborious sometimes”, and he promised that the XFL would not be so trying. It’s unknown how he’s going to cut games to two hours, but he did say that halftime may be eliminated. Other items that have been discussed is a shorter play clock and making the rules simple enough to control the referees.

During Thursday’s press conference in Dallas, Luck brought up a few notable items that haven’t been discussed yet. The XFL plans to finalize and publish rule book in late summer. He envisions the vast majority of players in the new XFL will have both College and NFL experience. Luck expects the first supplemental draft to occur late summer early fall. At the moment his top priority is to hire Coaches/GM’s for each franchise to start builing the teams out.

Coaches for the XFL teams are currently being interviewed, with $500,000/year being the expected pay. Quarterbacks are reportedly being offered $300,000. The current idea is to have eight star quarterbacks signed by March so that they can start marketing the coaches and the quarterbacks to the local markets.

It’s officially one year away and we’re starting to get a good amount of details from the new league, and I expect that the stream of information will be pretty steady until Feb 8, 2020. As always, we’ll keep you up to date on the latest news and rumors surrounding the league. Give us a follow on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube for the latest from XFL2k. Here’s to next year!!!

It’s confirmed! Bob Stoops is getting back into the coaching world.

The longtime Oklahoma head coach told KWTV in Oklahoma City that he has accepted an offer to become the head coach and general manager of the new XFL franchise based in Dallas.

Stoops, 58, hasn’t coached since retiring from his position at OU in June 2017. He had a 190-48 record in 18 seasons as the Sooners’ head coach, including 10 Big 12 titles.

“It’ll be fun. It’s a different time of year. I’ve been limited in some of the stuff today this time of year anyway. You can only do so much golf in this period,” Stoops said.

According to Pro Football Talk, which reported the news of Stoops’ return to football earlier Wednesday, Stoops’ new position will be formally announced by the XFL on Thursday.

The XFL will return to action with a 10-week regular season in the early part of 2020. It’s the second version of the league led by WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon. Oliver Luck, the former athletic director at West Virginia, left a position with the NCAA in June in order to become the XFL’s commissioner and CEO.

“It’ll be challenging for sure. If it wasn’t, I wouldn’t do it,” Stoops told KWTV. “And if it’s not fun I won’t do it. But I respect the guys running things. But this is ‘real football.’ If it was something goofy or have those old goofy names, I wouldn’t be associated with it.”

Is the XFL on the verge of landing their first big named coach? The latest has some solid credibility behind it, and for the league’s sake, this could be big. After all, when you are prepping to go up against the , you need to make very bold moves.

Former OU coach headed to XFL?

According to a Saturday Down South report, former Oklahoma Sooners‘ head coach Bob Stoops has the itch to get back on the sidelines – and he may want in on the ground level of the new XFL.

Vince McMahon has made it clear to anyone who will listen that he is determined this time around to have success . Signing someone with the background and credentials like Stoops would be a huge plus.

Ever since Bob Stoops retired in 2017, he has been rumored on several head coaching jobs in both college and pro football. Now he is on the XFL’s radar – and it looks like the feeling is mutual.

NFL reporter Benjamin Allbright tweeted out that Stoops may be looking to coach in the new XFL. If an XFL franchise lands Stoops, it will be a nice early feather in McMahon’s cap as it will bring some instant credibility to the reformed league.

Players will follow

While many fans are scoffing at the idea of the XFL doing well, don’t underestimate it. Both the USFL and Arena Football had great success for multiple years.

Yes, the NFL may be king, but it shows that sports fans love football so much that they would go watch another product if the talent were there.

If the XFL can land Stoops, and a few other big named coaches, the players will follow. Right now, there are many talented former college stars who are under 30 that would love to give football one more shot.

Players like former Navy star quarterback Keenan Reynolds, Clemson QB Tajh Boyd, Heisman winner Johnny Manziel and Tim Tebow (if he isn’t playing baseball that is) would all be great for the league in its infant stages.

All of them were great in college and are still young and athletic enough to make the jump to the XFL. Plus, having a better than average quarterback for a team just starting out is a big plus not just for the team, but for audience appeal. Another reason to give it a try if you are a former player? The pay. Unlike the first time around, McMahon knows he has to pay a competitive salary to draw in bigger names and is planning on doing just that.

Verified Twitter user @AllbrightNFL posted that he had had many conversation in the last 24 hours that eluded to the fact that Former Oklahoma Head Coach Bob Stoops was looking to get back into coaching, with the new XFL.

Stoops went 190-48 in his 18 seasons leading the Oklahoma program, with a national title in year two in Norman, capping off a perfect 13-0 season in 2000. He’s the only head coach in the BCS era to have won the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, and Sugar Bowl. Also worth noting, his coaching tree is extremely impressive, with guys like Mike Leach, Chuck Long, Kevin Sumlin, Mark Magino, Josh Heupel, and Lincoln Riley working under him at one point or another in his career.

At this point, Stoops looking at a return to football with the XFL is just a tweet, but if the XFL were able to lure a guy like Stoops out of retirement to coach in their league, it immediately makes their product a lot more interesting.