The 2023 USFL season is officially upon us, and we are finally getting XFL and USFL action together for our viewing pleasure this Spring football season. Sportsbooks are now available on that device in your pocket all over the world, and so this is going to be a Spring Football season like no other. I'll be here every week providing sports betting advice for USFL action, so join me here and pay homage to the original "fun" league. Be sure to also read all our other weekly USFL Fantasy Football articles.

If we ever start expanding into the realms of the European League of Football, Indoor Football League, Fan Controlled Football, and/or (I can only hope) the CPBL of Taiwan come baseball season–I'll be right here to discuss the full happenings across the board.

They might not be the #1...or #2 leagues...but damn it, we've congregated here because we love sports. So, when the powers to be in professional sports decide to supply our hungry demand for more year-round action, it would be fundamentally and morally wrong of us to not take a head-first dive into Spring Football education so that we can continue to enter DFS contests and place anxiety-inducing bets on games that most of our friends and family probably won't even know are being played--and if you're still reading this paragraph, I am fully confident that you share my sentiment on that point. Anyway, let's get to talking about the Spring Football league that started it all with the likes of Steve Young, Jim Kelly, Reggie White, Doug Flutie, and near-Congressman Herschel Walker.

We've hit the end of the road folks--the capper to a tremendously invigorating 2023 Spring Football season that has given us hope that we will have XFL and USFL games to watch for many years to come. It's time for the USFL Championship. Remember everything we've learned leading up to this point, now try to forget it, and now remember it all again, but hopefully just the helpful bits. Might we see another championship upset from the team representing the clearly-worse USFL division? Might we see the cream of the crop rise to the occasion and put their signature on this victory? A lot can happen in this one game--and with that, let's try to figure out what that will look like in a sea of variables and moving targets.

USFL Championship Game in Canton, Ohio

Birmingham Stallions vs. Pittsburgh Maulers (Saturday, July 1st, 8 PM,)

BHAM (-7.5), BHAM (-330), PIT (+270), O/U 45.5

Best Bet: Maulers (+7.5) & Under 45.5 

What a ride, and how fast 11 weeks go by. We end up with a USFL Championship matchup between the North Division Champion Pittsburgh Maulers and the South Division Champion Birmingham Stallions, a matchup that feels eerily like the Arlington Renegades vs. D.C. Defenders XFL Championship with the divisions in reverse. Last week, the Maulers edged out a 31-27 overtime victory over the Michigan Panthers to get here. Troy Williams was underwhelming, yet did what he needed to do, and Madre London combined with Garrett Groshek for another sort-of-alright game. Isiah Hennie and Josh Simmons once again did their respective receiving/special teams damage, but the game was once again won through the defense, which provided a 3-0 turnover margin through the work of playmakers like Kyahva Tezino and Olive Sagapolu.

By contrast, the Birmingham Stallions absolutely slapped the New Orleans Breakers around and man-handled them en route to a 47-22 victory, as the entire offense looked absolutely lethal and Alex McGough cruised his way to a 310-yard, four-touchdown, 84-rushing-yard, and one-touchdown performance and the 2023 USFL MVP designation. From C.J. Marable, Ricky Person Jr., Davion Davis, Deon Cain, and Jace Sternberger, every offensive component looked like far too much to handle for any USFL squad. Plus, the defense looked to be playing some of its best ball, as it has become how much of a difference it is to have Scooby Wright III in the lineup.

I am uncomfortable with just how perfect things seem to be for the Birmingham Stallions coming into this championship game looking for their second-straight title. It would probably be a mistake to rely too heavily on the comparisons to the XFL postseason, and this could quite easily end up being a blowout in favor of Birmingham, but I can't help but feel that the Stallions must be a tad bit deflated after winning what must have felt like their real championship game last week. When these two squads faced off in Canton in Week 4, we ended up with a surprisingly close 24-20 outcome. These are two very different teams, but it feels way too easy to think that this game will go exactly like it looks like it will go on paper. The Stallions could win this 35-10, but I think a more realistic range is 24-10 to 24-21, so take the points with Pittsburgh and ride under for a hopefully-exciting conclusion to the 2023 USFL campaign.

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