Spring League of American Football explained

Spring League of American Football
Pixels:150
Sport:American football
Founded:2016
Teams:8 (planned)
Country:United States
Tv:TBD

The Spring League of American Football (SLAF) was a planned professional American football league. The league was first announced in September 2016 with an expected 10 teams with the first season starting in 2018,[1] [2] but as the starting date approached the league was still looking for an investment of $100 million, thus pushing its first season with eight teams back to 2019 or 2020.[3]

The SLAF executive team consisted of former Madison Square Garden (MSG) executive Michael Lardner and MSG Chief Financial Officer Robert Pollichino.[4] According to the league management, they would like to create a relationship with the NFL as some sort of a developmental minor league.[5]

In October 2018, the league’s trademarks were declared abandoned by the USPTO.[6]

Premise

The league would split the country into 10 zones for the franchise based in the zone which would draw player from the colleges and high schools in the zone to have ready rivalries (players must have their college eligibility expired to try out). Team owners would be able to place their team anywhere in the zone, and the season would run from April to July for 10 games plus playoffs:

Rules

The SLAF will play by rules of the National Football League, including having 11 players on the field and needing two feet inbounds on receptions. The lone exception would be overtime rule for which they will use college overtime rule instead of the NFL's.

Zones

[7]

ZoneStates
Ohio ValleyOhio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Indiana
AtlanticMaryland, District of Columbia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina
EastNew York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Delaware
SouthTennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana
South-EastFlorida, Georgia
PlainsNorth Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado
MidwestMichigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri
South-WestArkansas, Texas
North-WestWashington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii
WestCalifornia, Nevada, New Mexico

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Another spring football league in the works. 22 September 2016.
  2. Web site: Former MSG Execs Launch Spring Pro Football Plan. 22 September 2016.
  3. Web site: A comeback for XFL, but can it win?. 29 January 2018 .
  4. Web site: Media Execs Working On Development Of Spring Football League. 22 September 2016 .
  5. Web site: Schwartz: Spring League Of American Football Set To Debut In 2018. 26 September 2016.
  6. Web site: Slaf Spring League Of American Football Est. 2016. Application #87140663.
  7. Web site: About SLAF. https://web.archive.org/web/20170629001057/http://slafootball.com/vision-concept.html. 2017-06-29.