While much attention will be on the Kansas City Chiefs when they go for an unprecedented 3-peat of Super Bowl titles in the 2024 NFL season, we’ll see the Birmingham Stallions get a crack at the 3-peat first.
In the newly-formed UFL, a merger of the USFL and XFL, the Birmingham Stallions enter the 2024 season as the favorites at top-rated sportsbooks to repeat as champions. The Stallions won the USFL Championship Game in 2022 and 2023, so this would technically be a 3rd-straight championship if they can pull it off again.
The UFL is going to start its inaugural season next week with the first regular season game on March 30, 2024. We look at the UFL odds for all 8 teams to win this year’s UFL Championship going into Week 1.
1. Birmingham Stallions
- 2023 Result: 8-2 in USFL, won USFL Championship Game
- 2024 UFL Championship Odds: +300
The Stallions are coming off a championship-winning season in which they had the USFL’s best record (8-2) and they scored the most points in the 2023 season. In fact, the Stallions scored 50 more points than the next-closest team, so they were the top offense, and they are bringing back coach Skip Holtz for a 3rd season.
It is interesting to note that 3 of the top 4 teams in championship odds come from the XFL. Remember, the new UFL includes 4 XFL teams and 4 USFL teams, but only the defending champs from Birmingham are in the top 4 in odds to win it all going into this first season of the merger.
But the Stallions are going to have to get it done without their MVP quarterback. Last year, Alex McGough stepped in during Week 1 after starter J’Mar Smith suffered a season-ending injury. McGough did a great job, leading the USFL with 20 touchdown passes as he won the league’s MVP award before winning another championship game for the team.
McGough has gone to the NFL and is currently in Green Bay with the Packers. We’ll see what Holtz and the Stallions can do with Smith returning at quarterback. He was not nearly as effective in 2022 as McGough was last year. The team also added Matt Corral, a 2022 3rd-round pick by the Carolina Panthers who never played any games in the NFL.
2. St. Louis Battlehawks
- 2023 Result: 7-3 in XFL, missed playoffs
- 2024 UFL Championship Odds: +350
The St. Louis Battlehawks were the best team to miss the playoffs in the XFL last year, losing out on a tie-breaker situation that has been remedied this season in the new UFL.
Former NFL tight end Anthony Becht is back as the head coach of the Battlehawks, who have the best odds of the XFL conference to win the championship.
The good news is quarterback A.J. McCarron has returned to the team. He was one of the best quarterbacks in the XFL last year, ranking 2nd with 2,150 passing yards. On top of that, he has NFL playoff experience, nearly upsetting the Steelers in the 2015 AFC wild card when he was with the Bengals. He also obviously has big-game experience from his days at Alabama, competing for national championships under coach Nick Saban.
3. DC Defenders
- 2023 Result: 9-1 in XFL, lost XFL Championship Game
- 2024 UFL Championship Odds: +380
The Defenders were the best team in the XFL all season last year until the championship game. They were 9-1 with the best offense in the league. But in that title game, they fell behind 17-0 quickly to an Arlington team that was only 4-6 in the regular season.
But the Defenders were a team that was skirting by with many close wins, including a 28-26 win in overtime against Arlington in Week 9. It seems that no matter which level of football you’re talking about, offensive juggernauts with shaky defenses like the Defenders had last year are destined to fall short of a championship.
The Defenders are back to try and finish the job with coach Reggie Barlow and quarterback Jordan Ta’amu.
4. Arlington Renegades
- 2023 Result: 4-6 in XFL, won XFL Championship Game
- 2024 UFL Championship Odds: +475
Nothing like going from a 4-6 season to a championship, but Arlington pulled off that miracle run in the XFL playoffs last year. Head coach Bob Stoops saw his offense step up after acquiring quarterback Luis Perez in a late-season trade. That got the offense humming while the defense dominated a disappointing Houston offense in the first playoff upset.
Beating the Defenders in the title game was a tall task, but the Defenders had that vulnerable defense, and the Renegades nearly beat them earlier that season. Sure enough, the underdogs jumped out big early and held on for the 35-26 win to claim the championship.
Perez and Stoops are back to lead the team this year, but they’ll definitely have to do much better than 4-6 to make the playoffs again. But having that experience should help give them a fighting shot to repeat.
5. Houston Roughnecks
- 2023 Result: 7-3 in USFL, lost in USFL Division Finals
- 2024 UFL Championship Odds: +650
To clear up any confusion, this is the 2023 USFL team, the Houston Gamblers, and they are taking on the name of the 2023 XFL team, the Houston Roughnecks. But it is the same bones of the roster and the same coach (Curtis Johnson) from the USFL team last year.
The good news is the Roughnecks have a new quarterback this year after Kenji Bahar was 1-of-2 quarterbacks in the 2023 USFL season to throw more interceptions (9) than touchdowns (8). Bahar is no longer with the team.
It is unclear who will emerge as the new quarterback, but the defense also needs to get better for these Roughnecks to seriously compete for the championship.
6. Memphis Showboats
- 2023 Result: 5-5 in USFL, missed playoffs
- 2024 UFL Championship Odds: +800
The Showboats were the USFL’s lowest-scoring team in the South Division last year on their way to a 5-5 finish that wasn’t good enough for the playoffs.
However, that was the misfortune of playing in the loaded division as no one finished better than 4-6 in the North Division. But the Showboats have made a head coaching change as John DeFilippo replaces Todd Haley, the former NFL head coach.
If DeFilippo sounds familiar, it’s because he was the quarterbacks coach for the 2017 Eagles, who won the Super Bowl with Nick Foles. But his resume didn’t continue shining in the NFL, so he has settled for coaching in the USFL and now UFL.
But DeFilippo was head coach of the New Orleans Breakers in the USFL last year, and that team finished 7-3 and reached the playoffs where they lost in the first game to those pesky Stallions from Birmingham.
7. Michigan Panthers
- 2023 Result: 4-6 in USFL, lost in USFL Division Finals
- 2024 UFL Championship Odds: +1300
While the Panthers made the playoffs with a 4-6 record last year, the oddsmakers are not optimistic at all that they’ll even get back to the tournament with this merger with the XFL.
Head coach Mike Nolan is back, but his Panthers were the lowest-scoring team in the USFL last season. The defense, his coaching specialty, was not great enough to make up for that fact.
8. San Antonio Brahmas
- 2023 Result: 3-7 in XFL, missed playoffs
- 2024 UFL Championship Odds: +1400
The Brahmas struggled to a 3-7 record in the XFL last year, and head coach Hines Ward was not retained for the 2024 season. Enter defensive guru Wade Phillips, who had a successful run in coaching the Houston Roughnecks (XFL) last year before his offense fell apart to end the season. Phillips’ teams are usually sound on defense and will put great pressure on the quarterbacks. But he has a tall task of fixing a team that had a really poor offense last year, so the Brahmas are projected to have the lowest odds of any team to win the 2024 UFL Championship.
*The line and/or odds on picks in this article might have moved since the content was commissioned. For updated line movements, visit BMR’s free betting odds product.
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