Spring League football to use Lucas Oil Stadium as game hub

Six games from The Spring League will air on Fox when the small professional developmental football league begins its season next month.

The league, which is in its fifth year, will have eight teams and will use Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and Rice Stadium in Houston as its game hubs. Teams in the North Division—Conquerors, Aviators, Alphas, and Linemen—will be headquartered in Indianapolis. South Division teams—Generals, Jousters, Blues and Sea Lions—will be based in Houston.

Fox Sports will be carrying league games for the second straight season, but this is the first time some will air on the main network.

Six regular-season games will be on Fox, beginning May 8, as well as the championship game. The remaining 18 regular-season games air on FS1 and FS2.

The league has had Johnny Manziel, Zach Mettenberger, Fred Jackson, Ben Tate, Greg Hardy and Ahmad Bradshaw among marquee players during past seasons.

“We believe that Fox’s massive reach will help enhance our product as we continue to provide players with critical development opportunities, while also evolving and developing as a league,” said Brian Woods, the league’s founder and CEO.

The Spring League has been a testing lab for the AAF and XFL for rules changes before they started play. Both those leagues ended play midway through their first year.

The upcoming season features some new rules, including a new overtime format and enhanced protection for the quarterback. In the new “spot and choose” overtime, the team that wins the overtime coin toss will pick the spot of the ball, while the other team will choose whether to play offense or defense. The Baltimore Ravens have proposed this for the NFL.

Tickets for the games at Lucas Oil Stadium range from $25-$65 and are scheduled for May 6 (7 p.m.), May 15 (3 p.m.), May 20 (7 p.m.), May 27 (7 p.m.), May 28 (10:30 p.m.), June 3 (7 p.m.) and June 4 (8 p.m.).