Six teams will suit up at the end of March to kickoff the road to crowning a 2024 WUL champion
January 10, 2024 by Jenna Weiner in News with 0 comments
After a tumultuous offseason that saw its membership contract from eight teams to six, the WUL announced its 2024 schedule. With the absence of Oregon Onyx and Los Angeles Astra, the league slimmed down its schedule while maintaining the Northwest and Southwest conferences that were established in 2023. Games will start on March 23 with the final weekend of the regular season taking place on May 18-19.
While the league’s smaller size necessitated some notable changes to its schedule, the general format largely remained consistent from last season. Two-time defending champions Seattle Tempest are once again joined by the Utah Wild and Colorado Alpenglow in the Northwest Conference, while two-time finalists San Diego Super Bloom lead the Southwest Conference contingent alongside the Arizona Sidewinders and the rebranded Bay Area Falcons.
Over the course of the regular season, each team will have six games (down from eight in 2023), with three at home and three on the road. Of those six matches, four will be in-conference, with every team playing both home and away against their conference rivals. The remaining two games will be played against out-of-conference competition, with each team missing one cross-conference matchup. Specifically, Seattle will not face Arizona, Colorado will not face the Bay Area, and Utah will not face San Diego.
In total, the WUL will put on eighteen regular season games, with an emphasis once again placed on in-conference play. As in 2023, the two top teams from each conference at the end of the regular season will advance to Championship Weekend, set to be held on June 1-2 in a location still to be determined.
Some notable schedule highlights:
- The season’s opening weekend offers a rematch between last year’s finalists, Seattle and San Diego, as well as a rematch of the 2023 third place game between Utah and the Bay Area.
- Week 1 also sees Arizona starting its season on the road at Colorado, meaning all six squads will be in action in what is sure to be a rollicking start to the 2024 season.
- Over the first two weeks of the season each team will play both at home and on the road, as Week 2 hosts another trio of games.
- All of the regular season’s out-of-conference games are set to be played in Weeks 1 and 2, with a start of April gap weekend the dividing line between in- and out-of-conference play.
- Weeks 4 through 9 serve as the bulk of the regular season, as in-conference play gets underway to determine which teams will make it to Championship Weekend.
- Seattle will be the first team to finish its regular season schedule, with the two-time defending champs concluding their third campaign at home against Utah in Week 8.
- The remaining five teams all play on the final weekend of the regular season.
- Week 9 includes the sole road trip double header of the season, with the far-flying Falcons migrating south to face Arizona and San Diego on back-to-back days.
- Unlike their first two seasons, this year the WUL will not put on any mini-tournaments, instead opting for a purely single-game format.
