Host selection The UFL awards its championship games to an ostensibly neutral site chosen among the league's existing home cities. Its lead time is substantially shorter than the several years advance notice given for the
Super Bowl, the
National Football League title game; the UFL has typically awarded the championship roughly two months in advance, early in that year's regular season. In contrast to the 2024 competition, where St. Louis was the runaway favorite over only one other bid known to have been seriously considered (that of
Canton, Ohio's
Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium), the 2025 championship faced multiple scheduling conflicts, most prominently with the
2025 FIFA Club World Cup and the
2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup, both slated to begin the same weekend. The
DC Defenders'
Audi Field, which had been an early favorite to host the game, and
Lumen Field in
Seattle, Washington, with which the UFL maintains a retainer agreement dating to the
Seattle Sea Dragons, were both ruled out due to those stadiums hosting major soccer tournaments; the
Alamodome, host of the 2023 XFL title game, has a concert the previous day, while
Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis will be undergoing renovations (and itself has had some of the league's worst attendance). By October 2024,
Protective Stadium in
Birmingham had emerged as the favorite venue for the event; Birmingham had been the hub for the
2022 USFL season but was unable to host the playoffs that year, which were relocated to Canton. The announcement also revealed the game would have a
presenting sponsor,
Underdog Fantasy Sports, which has been the league's
fantasy sports partner since 2024. In the history of the brands,
Michigan had not defeated
Birmingham since week 1 of the inaugural
1983 USFL season, a year in which that version of the Panthers made (and won in) their only league championship appearance. In the
XFL Conference Championship, the Defenders upset the host
St. Louis Battlehawks 36–18. It was the second consecutive year in which St. Louis was awarded the league championship hosting and finished with the best record in the XFL conference only to lose in the conference championship and fail to advance to the title game.
Bracket ==Teams==