If you’re a Houston Cougars football fan and missing live postseason action at your home stadium, you’re in luck.
This past weekend, the XFL, the latest professional football league to make its debut, kicked off its second iteration. The ratings were, well, solid. According to one report, the XFL ranked second, third and fourth among weekend sporting events, behind only Sunday’s final round of the PGA Tour Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. The highest-rated of the XFL games was Tampa Bay-New York with a 2.1 rating and 3.39 million viewers.
College football-wise, that’s comparable to the 2.1/3.33 million posted by the Navy-Kansas State Liberty Bowl this past New Year’s Eve.
The eight-team league will play a 10-game season that will culminate with an April 26 championship game. According to the Houston Chronicle, it will be announced Thursday that the league’s title game will be played at TDECU Stadium. That, of course, is the home of the Houston Cougars football team.
The Chronicle writes that “TDECU Stadium... was selected over other sites that include MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., CenturyLink Field in Seattle, Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, Calif., Audi Stadium in Washington, D.C., Globe Life Park in Arlington and The Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis.”
In addition to the Cougars, TDECU Stadium is the home of the XFL’s Houston Roughnecks.
TDECU Stadium was opened in 2014 and seats 42,000 fans. As we noted earlier this month, the university has installed new turf at the stadium that can be customized and changed for every game. That turf was in place for the Roughnecks’ opener this past weekend.
