February 11, 2025
By Evan Lepler
After a busy offseason that included expansion, realignment, and several stars notably switching cities, the UFA officially released the 2025 schedule this morning. Having been privy to confidentially study and scrutinize the secret spreadsheet over the course of the past few days, I can say with certainty: it’s truly going to be a 144-game odyssey that will be unlike any season we’ve ever witnessed before.
For starters, the journey opens with a Thursday night interdivisional stand-alone showcase featuring two franchises who own a combined five UFA championships. That’s the first of 21 interdivisional matchups on the 2025 calendar, a record-breaking number of cross-quadrant contests which will undoubtedly factor into the competitive landscape in several meaningful ways.
Beyond that super intriguing New York at Oakland Thursday opener, the first weekend of the new season also delivers Salt Lake at Atlanta on Saturday night down South. That’s the battle between two teams that probably should have been at Championship Weekend last August, but both suffered extraordinary and heartbreaking one-goal home losses in their respective division title games two weeks prior.
This opening challenge against the Shred is just the beginning of the Hustle’s 2025 gauntlet. Much like a season ago, Atlanta Head Coach Tuba Benson-Jaja has aggressively lined up arguably the most difficult schedule in the league to try and prepare his team for the postseason moment. Aside from the opener against Salt Lake, the Hustle also have a doubleheader road trip to Minnesota and Chicago, along with four games against Carolina and a west coast double-dip at LA and San Diego. Between the distance traveled and the anticipated quality of opponents, this very possibly could be the toughest 12-game grind in the history of the league.
In other words, it’s exactly what Tuba wanted.
Overall, we will also see more doubleheader weekends over the course of the season. There are 55 examples of a team playing multiple games in a weekend, though only 36 of those have a team playing road games on back-to-back days.
In a bizarre bit of scheduling, for example, the Chicago Union have zero road doubleheaders, meaning they won’t ever play two road games on consecutive days. But the Union do have FOUR different weekends where they play multiple times, all of which consist of one home game and one road game.
Is it much easier to play one home game and one road game on consecutive days instead of two straight road games? Presumably, maybe? I guess it’s gotta be a little bit easier, but any back-to-back is always a challenge, testing a team’s depth, commitment, and conditioning.
The Union have been one of the biggest stories of the offseason so far, bolstering their roster with numerous big names to try and dethrone Minnesota in the Central Division. But it will be a while before we have a great sense of exactly what Chicago’s potential can be. That’s because they only play four games in the first eight weeks of the season. Of course, the schedule inevitably ramps up quickly in late June, with three straight doubleheader weekends in which they’ll play six games in 17 days from June 20 to July 5. With another pair of games in the season’s 13th and final week, Chicago possesses one of the most back-loaded slates around the league.
Another quirk on the 2025 calendar involves the New York Empire, who will become the first team in league history to play an uneven number of home and road contests. New York will still host all five members of the East Division, but they will also have seven road dates, in which they’ll travel to their face their East foes—Boston, DC, Montreal, Philly, and Toronto—along with their opening weekend interdivisional jaunt to Oakland and Vegas.
Empire GM Matt Stevens, when asked about the decision to pass up a sixth home game, emphasized that he really wanted to bring his team to Vegas to give the Bighorns a marquee matchup in their inaugural game. Along with that, Stevens said it just made logistical sense to turn that trip into a doubleheader. Wanting to maintain their commitment to visit the other five cities in the East, the Empire decided without much consternation that having a schedule with only five home dates would not be a major issue.
Meanwhile, the Oakland Spiders were the beneficiary of New York’s ambitious plan, as the Spiders are the organization tasked with hosting seven of their 12 regular season games.
That’s what led to the first game of the season being an unprecedented matchup between the two-time champion Spiders and the three-time champs from New York. In fact, there are more than a dozen other first-time matchups between franchises in 2025, creating a fascinating mixture of never-before-seen pairings along with all the familiar rivalries that always deliver spicy excitement.
Here’s the full breakdown of the schedule, week by week:
- Week 1 | April 24-26 — 7 games (1 Thu, 2 Fri, 4 Sat, 0 Sun)
- Week 2 | May 2-4 — 11 games (2 Fri, 6 Sat, 3 Sun)
- Week 3 | May 9-11 — 11 games (3 Fri, 7 Sat, 1 Sun)
- Week 4 | May 16-18 — 10 games (3 Fri, 6 Sat, 1 Sun)
- Week 5 | May 23-24 — 9 games (4 Fri, 5 Sat, 0 Sun)
- Week 6 | May 30-June 1 — 13 games (6 Fri, 5 Sat, 2 Sun)
- Week 7 | June 6-8 — 13 games (5 Fri, 6 Sat, 2 Sun)
- Week 8 | June 13-15 — 11 games (2 Fri, 8 Sat, 1 Sun)
- Week 9 | June 20-22 — 12 games (5 Fri, 6 Sat, 1 Sun)
- Week 10 | June 27-28 — 13 games (6 Fri, 7 Sat, 0 Sun)
- Week 11 | July 4-6 — 10 games (3 Fri, 6 Sat, 1 Sun)
- Week 12 | July 11-13 — 10 games (3 Fri, 6 Sat, 1 Sun)
- Week 13 | July 18-20 — 14 games (3 Fri, 8 Sat, 3 Sun)
Overall, there are 47 games on Fridays, 80 on Saturdays, and 16 on Sundays, with the lone Thursday contest being the aforementioned opener.
While individual teams don’t have complete and total power in declaring exactly when their home games will be played, there’s definitely some preferences that emerge in the complex and painstaking schedule-making process. For instance, the Indy AlleyCats are the only team in the league who have all six of their home games on Saturdays. Atlanta, Austin, and San Diego have five home Saturdays with one home Friday. Detroit has five home Saturdays and one home Sunday.
There are also a bunch of teams who are willing and eager to host on Friday. Chicago, Colorado, Los Angeles, Madison, and Seattle all have three home Fridays, while Houston has four.
Then there’s Salt Lake, who leads the way with five Friday home games, one of the obvious reasons why the Shred are so prominently featured on "Friday Night Frisbee".
As far as doubleheaders go, the Colorado Summit are the only team league-wide that will embark on three different road back-to-backs. But it is interesting to note that exactly half of the full 144-game slate—72 games, to be exact—involve a team that will be in the midst of two road games in the same weekend.
Here’s the list of how many times each team has a road doubleheader this season, meaning two games on the road in a single weekend:
ATL - 2
ATX - 2
BOS - 2
CAR - 2
CHI - 0
COL - 3
DC - 1
DET - 1
HTX - 2
IND - 0
LA - 2
LV - 2
MAD - 1
MIN - 1
MTL - 2
NY - 2
OAK - 2
ORE - 2
PHI - 1
PIT - 0
SD - 1
SEA - 2
SLC - 2
TOR - 2
Add those all up, and you’ll sum 36 different road doubleheader weekends.
But as previously mentioned, while some teams don’t have any weekends with multiple road games, every team in the league has at least one weekend where they are playing twice.
Here’s a list of how many times each team will play two games in the same weekend:
ATL - 2
ATX - 2
BOS - 3
CAR - 2
CHI - 4
COL - 3
DC - 1
DET - 3
HTX - 2
IND - 1
LA - 3
LV - 2
MAD - 3
MIN - 2
MTL - 3
NY - 2
OAK - 2
ORE - 2
PHI - 2
PIT - 1
SD - 2
SEA - 3
SLC - 2
TOR - 3
Here’s the week-by-week look at who will two games in a weekend, with true road doubleheaders bolded:
Week 1: 1 team (NY)
Week 2: 5 teams (MAD, LA, OAK, SD, TOR)
Week 3: 3 teams (ATL, MTL, SEA)
Week 4: 3 teams (BOS, COL, NY)
Week 5: 3 teams (ORE, SD, SEA)
Week 6: 6 teams (ATL, CAR, DC, HTX, SLC, TOR)
Week 7: 4 teams (ATX, MTL, PHI, LV)
Week 8: 3 teams (BOS, MAD, ORE)
Week 9: 7 teams (CHI, DET, HTX, LA, LV, PIT, TOR)
Week 10: 8 teams (ATX, CHI, COL, DET, IND, MAD, MTL, OAK)
Week 11: 3 teams (CHI, MIN, SLC)
Week 12: 4 teams (BOS, COL, LA, PHI)
Week 13: 5 teams (CAR, CHI, DET, MIN, SEA)
Are you curious how many interdivisional games each team plays in 2025?
Yes, of course, that’s why you’re here!
There are seven teams who have THREE interdivisional games on the schedule: Atlanta, Carolina, Los Angeles, Oakland, Pittsburgh, San Diego, and Vegas.
Eight other teams have a pair of interdivisional affairs: Austin, Colorado, Houston, Madison, Minnesota, New York, Philadelphia, and Salt Lake.
Chicago, DC, Oregon, Seattle, and Toronto all have one interdivisional challenge, while four franchises—Boston, Detroit, Indianapolis, and Montreal—will need to make Championship Weekend to face someone from a different division in 2025.
Overall, though, 15 of the league’s 24 teams will be playing multiple interdivisional matchups. Nine of the 13 regular season weekends include at least one interdivisional date.
Here’s the full list of interdivisional action, along with the applicable series history:
- April 24 — New York @ Oakland — 1st ever meeting
- April 25 — New York @ Vegas — 1st ever meeting
- April 26 — Salt Lake @ Atlanta — 1st ever meeting
- May 2 — Madison @ Houston — 1st ever meeting
- May 3 — Madison @ Austin — 2nd meeting (Austin leads 1-0)
- May 10 — DC @ Carolina — 9th meeting (DC leads 5-3)
- May 16 — Colorado @ Houston — 1st ever meeting
- May 17 — Colorado @ Austin — 1st ever meeting
- May 30 — Atlanta @ Minnesota — 1st ever meeting
- May 31 — Atlanta @ Chicago — 1st ever meeting
- May 31 — Carolina @ Philadelphia — 4th meeting (Carolina leads 2-1)
- June 1 — Carolina @ Pittsburgh — 5th meeting (Carolina leads 4-0)
- June 14 — San Diego @ Vegas — 1st ever meeting
- June 14 — Philadelphia @ Pittsburgh — 6th meeting (Philadelphia leads 4-1)
- June 20 — Los Angeles @ Oregon — 7th meeting (LA leads 5-1)
- June 21 — Los Angeles @ Seattle — 24th meeting (LA leads 15-8)
- June 28 — Oakland @ San Diego — 25th meeting (SD leads 13-11)
- June 28 — Pittsburgh @ Toronto — 3rd meeting (Toronto leads 2-0)
- July 18 — Minnesota @ Salt Lake — 2nd meeting (Salt Lake leads 1-0)
- July 19 — San Diego @ Oakland — 26th meeting (SD leads 13-11)
- July 20 — Vegas @ Los Angeles — 1st meeting
As you can see, nine of the 21 interdivisional matchups will be the first ever meeting between two teams, while a dozen other contests will have at least a little historical context.
Furthermore, while every game brings its own backstory, details, and intrigue, there have been some noticeable trends in recent interdivisional activity, mainly with the East Division enjoying the most success.
Since 2023, here are the interdivisional records by division, including results from Championship Weekend:
East: 15-6 (.714)
South: 10-9 (.526)
Central: 7-12 (.368)
West: 5-10 (.333)
Interestingly, the East only has six interdivisional opportunities in 2025, the fewest of any of the divisions, while the Central has just eight. The West and South, largely due to geographic sensibility after the recent realignment, have 12 and 16 interdivisional games, respectively, in the season ahead.
As all the scheduling puzzle pieces gradually fell into place, most teams had relatively normal sequencing of road and home dates alternating one or two at a time. However, there were also some outliers who have extended home stands and/or long stretches on the road.
The New York Empire, with their extra road game mixed in, start the season with six of their first seven on the road, before closing with four straight at home. The Seattle Cascades begin at home, but then play five in a row on the road, before finishing with five of six at home.
Other strange slates include Toronto, who plays two on the road, then five straight at home, before closing with four of five away. Houston starts with three of four at home, then deals with five consecutive road dates before capping the season with three more at home.
Regardless of the particular idiosyncrasies on each team’s dozen-game calendar, there are challenges everywhere. The level around the league has risen every year, and 2025 will certainly continue that trend.
The 144-game regular season journey will commence 10 weeks from Thursday, or 72 days from today. In the meantime, tryouts, preseason practices, and free agency all continue to churn, as the two dozen franchises try to prepare for the wild adventure that’s ahead. There’s no doubt that all the effort expended during these wintry months will inevitably factor into the 2025 championship chase.
