Since the USFL’s inception in 2022 and the XFL’s return in 2023, we have received multiple versions of drafts from what is now known as the UFL. Whether it was a college draft or a full league re-draft, we haven’t gone a single season of spring football since 2022 without some form of draft.
The draft nerds out there like myself were given a chance to rejoice over this news. We are going to get into the details of the draft and place them all in one location for fans wanting to know what this event will look like, how they can follow along, who is eligible, as well as some of the history involved in this 2027 UFL Draft.
2027 UFL Draft: When and Where
When: Wednesday, November 18th, beginning at 8:00 pm ET (2 hours)
Where: Ballpark Village in St. Louis, Missouri
How to Watch: NFL Network, Featuring Joe Tessitore and Michelle Smallmon
Along with the announcement of the 2027 Draft came the announcement that the UFL will host a live event open to fans to attend…for free, in the league’s crown jewel city: St. Louis. They even took it one step further. Anyone who purchases season tickets before November 1st will be entered into a sweepstakes to win travel to the UFL Draft. St. Louis season ticket holders will also get a chance to meet Head Coach Ricky Proehl, a special credential, access to a VIP hospitality area with a dedicated merchandise stand, and a photo opportunity with the United Bowl Trophy.
Player Eligibility
The draft will feature a mixture of eligible players. The criteria for being draft-eligible have changed slightly over the years, and this season may be the most logical way to handle eligibility. Rather than forcing every prospect into the draft class and allowing many players who are long-term veterans to be selected, they have limited the age of entrants UNLESS they participate in the UFL Showcases, which automatically grants them eligibility. Similar to the CFL draft, selecting a player simply means you hold their UFL rights, allowing you to recruit them without competition within the UFL.
Any player in the 2027 NFL Draft class is automatically eligible to be selected. Teams are allowed to select players whether or not they were selected in the NFL Draft Process. If a player was in the 2023-2026 Draft Classes and has been on an NFL roster since the 2026 United Bowl. This limits the age of the NFL Free Agents a team can select rights to.
This means the aging veterans retain their free agent status, and they will not be eligible for the 2027 draft. The final way to earn eligibility is to attend a UFL showcase. This is a given, anyone who spends the money, time, and exerts the effort to attend a Showcase deserves entrance into the draft.
One thing that needs to be adjusted in the future is the fact that the UFL still has two showcases scheduled after this initial draft. IF the showcase participants are allowed entrance into the draft, all showcases should be completed before the draft process. This certainly condenses the window in which you can run your showcases to essentially August, September, October, and 2 weeks into November to complete all of the events.
UFL teams are allowed to carry up to 64 players into training camp in 2027, and most, if not all, teams have space on their current rosters to select a player in every round of the 2027 selection process. One caveat to note is that teams can pass on a single pick, or opt out of the draft at any time. Granted, the likelihood of any team 100% opting out is slim to none, but we have seen in years past where teams decide not to make a selection in multiple rounds.
Rounds and Draft Order
Much like the NFL draft process, the UFL has developed its draft order around the 2026 standings. Even with two teams relocating, the foundation of the teams remains the same, so factoring in the standings makes sense in this case. Although the standings determined the draft order, the UFL had the unique challenge of trying to figure out what to do with 3 teams that finished with the same record at the bottom of the standings. Dallas, Colorado, and Rhode Island will rotate selections due to sharing the same record. This is why you see the shift in round 2 versus round 1.
The 2027 UFL Draft process will feature 15 rounds, and teams are given 3 minutes to make a selection. The first two rounds will be broadcast live during the two-hour NFL Network event. The remainder of the draft will play out like in years past, with selections likely being posted via the league’s social media as the picks are made.
The introduction of a live all-access draft event will bring a whole new dynamic to the draft process for the UFL. In years past, fans of the league turned to independent content creators who opted to cover the draft in real time in order to get some form of analysis of the selections as they come in. This year, the UFL is doing its best to maximize opportunities to allow fans to be a part of the league in many ways.
Spring Football Draft History
Looking back, we have had a draft in each of our spring football leagues since the 2019 launch of the Alliance of American Football. The unique aspect of this is that the UFL has held multiple variations of the draft process. In 2020, 2022, and 2023, the USFL and XFL held full league drafts to fill out initial rosters, and at that time players only needed to apply for entry into the draft process. In some cases, players were recruited by the league to enter their names into the draft. They had few limits on who could be selected at this time, and we saw everyone from rookies to spring football and NFL veterans selected during this time.
In 2023, the USFL announced the integration of a college draft, aimed at bringing in and developing talented rookies that could find their way into the NFL in the future. In some cases, players would end up selected by both the USFL and NFL, giving them options when pursuing professional football. Many of the players selected did end up spending time in both the NFL and USFL.
In 2024, as we all know, the USFL and XFL merged, so the XFL never deviated from its full league draft format that it followed 3 separate times in its history as a league. Heading into 2024, there was a redraft of the entire league, much like the XFL was used to in previous seasons. This took 16 rosters worth of players, pared them down to 8 rosters worth of players, and left nearly 400 talented players on the free agent market without a team to play for at the time.
Before the 2025 season a 10-round draft of college rookies took place in July of 2025, with many of those players first spending time on an NFL roster before ultimately ending up in the UFL, such as top overall pick Jason Bean, who had signed with the Colts as an undrafted free agent in 2025, but wound up in the UFL in 2026. This will likely be a common occurrence regardless of how the UFL looks to select players.
Allowing teams to take calculated risks to hold rights to current fringe NFL players is one strategy for building a strong roster. If you hold draft picks like lottery tickets and do your best to hit a home run on each one, regardless of NFL status, sometimes that will pay off in collecting highly talented players on your roster.
Prior to the 2026 season, we yet again got a full league redraft given that a large chunk of the coaching staffs were turned over, and the league saw 3 teams relocate to new markets for the season. This created what felt like an entirely new league in 2026, and now the league looks to use that season as a launching point into the next era of the UFL: expansion.
Extra Points
Finally, the league has announced it will expand to 10 teams in 2028. I am curious to see if these announcements end up drawing in more and more talent as the league becomes a more consistent force in the football world.
Once the league can move past full league restructures, players may actually begin to view the league as a legitimate way of solidifying their status within the NFL, or in some cases as a launching point to end up in the CFL with a long-term career. Regardless, consistency and professionalism are key in this next stage of growth for the UFL. It is time to put full league re-drafts in the rearview mirror and allow each team to develop stars in their markets.
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