The United Football League (UFL) is in the stretch run of its second season, and this year’s campaign marks the fourth consecutive spring we’ve been blessed with professional spring football overall when factoring in the years the USFL (2022-23) and XFL 3.0 (2023) were active as individual entities prior to merging in 2024.
Spring football brings about its own unique challenges from a betting and fantasy perspective, as personnel usage can be much less predictable than in the NFL, and teams don’t have anywhere near the same amount of offseason preparation time.
The UFL does not play preseason games, and although some year-to-year continuity is starting to develop in terms of rosters, there has still been a decent amount of turnover and player movement when looking back throughout the three- and four-year life cycle of most of the teams.
Best UFL Picks Today – Championship Game
Below, we’ll highlight player props for this weekend’s championship.
Jordan Ta’amu Over 243.5 Passing Yards
Expectations are climbing for Ta’amu’s performance in this title clash, as this number was at 231.5 yards on Thursday at Underdog before going up all the way to 249.5 yards in less than 24 hours. The developments aren’t completely unexpected, considering Ta’amu passed for a career-best 2,153 yards during the regular season.
This current line is a nice middle ground between the two aforementioned numbers, so we’ll roll with it at a decent price on FanDuel Sportsbook.
The talented signal-caller threw for a modest 204 yards in the XFL Conference Championship win over the Battlehawks, but the game script limited him to 26 pass attempts. He was much more aggressive during the regular season, averaging 31.7 pass attempts per contest, including 36 in his one meeting with Michigan.
Ta’amu threw for 259 yards and a pair of scores in DC’s 38-14 loss to the Panthers in Week 6, and he eclipsed this yardage figure in four of nine games overall. It’s also worth noting this game will be played on the fast track of The Dome in St. Louis, and the projected total sits at 50.5 points, so plenty of offense is expected.
Ta’amu has multiple playmaking targets at his disposal, including Chris Rowland, Seth Williams, Cornell Powell and even running back Deon Jackson, who’s explosive with the ball in his hands. The Panthers allowed a league-high 190 completions, 2,204 passing yards and 211.1 passing yards per game during the regular season as well, and during last week’s USFL Conference Championship victory against the Stallions, they surrendered 249 combined passing yards to Matt Corral and J’Mar Smith.
Where To Play: Jordan Ta’amu Over 243.5 Passing Yards (-114) | FanDuel Sportsbook
Bryce Perkins Higher Than 196.5 Passing Yards
We’ll go with Perkins’ Underdog yardage prop, as it’s as high as 205.5 on FanDuel as of Friday night. The past and likely future NFL signal-caller has been a revelation this season, and he returned from a three-week layoff due to an ankle injury last week to dice the normally daunting Stallions defense for 238 passing yards on a blistering 80.0% completion rate.
Like Ta’amu, Perkins can count on multiple playmaking pass catchers, including Malik Turner and Siaosi Mariner. These two wideouts had garnered their fair share of pro football experience before shining this season. Perkins also now has access to two highly productive outlet options out of the backfield in RBs Toa Taua and Matt Colburn, as well as an athletic tight end in Cole Hikutini.
Perkins exceeded this yardage total in three of his last four regular-season games (in addition to last week’s playoff victory). He also fell just short in two other instances with totals of 188 and 193 yards, the first of those coming against the Defenders in the aforementioned Week 6 win when he only had to put up 18 pass attempts overall thanks to the comfortable lead.
The Defenders are aggressive against the pass and accrued 22 sacks and seven picks in 10 regular-season games, but they also yielded the second-highest completion percentage (65.0) and the second-highest yards per attempt (7.3) during the campaign. With the expectation of a close, high-scoring game, Perkins should have many chances to exceed this total.
Where To Play: Bryce Perkins Higher Than 196.5 Passing Yards | Underdog
Comparing UFL and NFL Betting & DFS
The differences between UFL and NFL betting aren’t immediately apparent until one is familiarized with some of the unique aspects of the spring league’s scoring rules.
A touchdown in the UFL is worth six points just as in the NFL. However, there are no kicking extra-point tries in the UFL, with teams instead having the option to go for one, two or three points on plays that originate from the two, five, and 10-yard line, respectively.
With even a nine-point deficit still constituting a one-possession game in the UFL, the top four key betting numbers of three, seven, six and 10 points in the NFL don’t apply with the same frequency. For example, through the first six weeks of UFL play this season, only five of 24 games finished with one of those numbers as the margin of victory.
Another rule difference that can sometimes lead to extra production and scores is the league’s unique onside-play component.
Teams that are trailing or tied in the fourth quarter have the option of trying to convert a 4th-and-12 play from their own 28-yard line in an attempt to retain possession after a score. Since this play has a higher percentage of success over time than a traditional onside kick, it can lead to some late offense and additional production for individual players when teams manage to convert.
And, the UFL also moved up its touchbacks to the 35-yard line for the 2025 season, a development that has seemingly helped lead to a bump in offense as the season has unfolded and quarterbacks and pass catchers have developed more chemistry.
Now well into the UFL’s second season and with the USFL and XFL having been the subject of betting markets dating back as far as 2022 (as well as the XFL’s 2020 COVID-interrupted season), sportsbooks and the betting public are now much more acclimated to betting on spring football and familiar with all of the unique elements of the UFL and individual team trends and tendencies.
Quarterback play and skill-position player usage are more of a known quantity as well now that some players are in their second or third seasons of spring football, at minimum, so prop betting is viable for those who follow the league closely.
