The Louisville Kings won the 2026 UFL playoffs, beating the DC Defenders 27-20 in the United Bowl on Saturday, June 13, 2026, at Audi Field in Washington. The 2027 season opens on Friday, March 26, and the league has not yet put its 2027 playoff dates on its schedule.
Louisville won the title in its first season. The Kings lost their first three games, finished the regular season 6-4 and then won two playoff games six days apart, the first of them on the road in St. Louis. Our UFL championship odds page covers the title game as well.
How the 2026 playoffs worked
The UFL’s 2026 standings were a single eight-team table. Four teams were marked as playoff qualifiers: the Orlando Storm at 8-2, the St. Louis Battlehawks and the Louisville Kings at 6-4, and the DC Defenders at 5-5.
The semifinals were played on Sunday, June 7. Orlando, the top seed, met DC at Daytona Stadium in Daytona Beach, which the league’s own recap called a neutral setting. St. Louis hosted Louisville. The two winners met six days later in a single title game, the United Bowl.
| Round | Date | Game | Result | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Semifinal | Sun, June 7 | DC Defenders at Orlando Storm | DC won 28-22 | Daytona Stadium, Daytona Beach |
| Semifinal | Sun, June 7 | Louisville Kings at St. Louis Battlehawks | Louisville won 29-20 | The Dome at America’s Center, St. Louis |
| United Bowl | Sat, June 13 | DC Defenders at Louisville Kings | Louisville won 27-20 | Audi Field, Washington |
How Louisville won the United Bowl
DC led 16-7 at halftime and held Louisville under 100 yards of offense in the first half. The game turned in the third quarter, when DC quarterback Jason Bean reinjured his left shoulder and was ruled out, and EJ Perry replaced him.
Ian Wheeler ran 40 yards for a touchdown on the first play of the fourth quarter to put Louisville ahead. Cameron Dantzler then intercepted Perry, and James Robinson scored two plays later for a 27-16 lead. Matt McCrane’s 60-yard field goal, worth four points under UFL rules, cut it to 27-20, and DC’s last drive stalled on fourth down inside the red zone. Wheeler was named United Bowl MVP after 81 rushing yards.
| Team | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | Final |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DC Defenders | 3 | 13 | 0 | 4 | 20 |
| Louisville Kings | 0 | 7 | 6 | 14 | 27 |
In the semifinal in St. Louis, Tanner Brown made field goals of 60 and 63 yards, each worth four points, and the league says he was the first player in UFL history to make two in one game. In Daytona Beach, DC converted 10 of 16 third downs to beat Orlando.
Rules that move a UFL total
UFL scoring pays extra for long kicks and long tries, and it shows up in the totals. The league’s 2026 rules make any field goal from 60 yards or longer worth four points. After a touchdown, a team can kick a 33-yard try for one point, run a play from the 2-yard line for two, or from the 8-yard line for three.
In the 2026 playoffs Brown kicked two four-pointers at St. Louis, and McCrane kicked one in each of DC’s two games, from 61 yards against Orlando and 60 in the United Bowl. Overtime is also different. Each team gets three attempts from the 5-yard line, alternating, and they keep alternating until the tie is broken.
The 2025 playoffs, and what this page said then
In 2025 the league still ran two conferences. On Sunday, June 8, 2025, the Michigan Panthers won the USFL Conference Championship 44-29 at Birmingham, and the DC Defenders won the XFL Conference Championship 36-18 at St. Louis. DC then beat Michigan 58-34 for the UFL title on June 14, 2025, at The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis.
The 2025 version of this page backed both favorites, Birmingham at -120 and St. Louis at -148, and both lost. It had the Over 45.5 in the first game, which 73 points cleared, and the Under 46.5 in the second, which lost when 54 were scored.
What comes next
The 2027 season opens on Friday, March 26, with Louisville at home at Lynn Family Stadium at 8 p.m. ET on FOX, according to the league. Colorado, at Weidner Field in Colorado Springs, and Rhode Island, at Centreville Bank Stadium in Pawtucket, join in 2027. Utah and Oklahoma follow in 2028, when the league goes to 10 teams.
The UFL’s schedule page still listed no 2027 season when we read it on November 5, 2026, so no 2027 playoff date or format is on this page yet, and no price is either. Our sportsbook reviews cover the books, and the handicappers we list are on the handicappers page. More UFL pieces are in the UFL section of our blog.