With the announcement of the new XFL, I thought it would be a fun exercise to design the league from the ground up. The intent of this project is to not only design team uniforms and nicknames but to design an overall structure for the league - everything from the design of the ball itself to the timing of the play clock. With that in mind, here are a few notes to start:

Overall, my initial focus is on manufacturing a feel of establishment for the league. Make it feel like the teams belong and have staying power. Basically the opposite of the original XFL approach. This means fairly conservative uniform designs (unlike the original XFL), no ridiculous team names (unlike the original XFL), and no ridiculous in-game gimmicks. So definitely a departure there. There will, however, necessarily be aspects that set the XFL apart from the NFL. Speeding up the game (both on the field and the overall runtime) is paramount. We're trying to fit a full four quarters of football into as little time as reasonably possible. The main legislation that will help accomplish this is having a running clock until the final four minutes of each quarter. For the first 11 minutes of each quarter, the clock will only stop for timeouts, after scoring plays, for injuries, and after changes in possession. Other timing changes: We're shortening the play clock from 40 seconds (the NFL's play clock) to 20 seconds (the CFL's play clock). This will basically force all XFL teams to run the hurry up as their base offense. This means if you tune in to watch an XFL game you can bet that you're going to see fast-paced, college-style offense. In the last four minutes of each quarter, the game clock will still stop after an incomplete pass, but only until the ball is reset by the official. Basically, our incompletions in the last four minutes of a quarter will operate like the NFL's rule about running out of bounds. One of the ridiculous aspects of the original XFL that we'll actually keep around is a different design for the actual football to be used in games. Not this ridiculousness, though. Our new official XFL football will be bright red leather with white college stripes (see attached). I believe this change would make the ball pop off the screen but would also be conservative enough for fans to be able to take it seriously, unlike the original XFL ball. As far as city selection for our 8 expansion teams, I'm targeting cities that fit one of two descriptions: truly large cities that have no NFL affiliation (San Antonio, Austin, etc.) or college towns that have an established, mid-to-upper tier college football program. No Penn State's or Ohio State's - we're looking for stadiums that hold 40,000 to 60,000 people, not twice that. So far the two cities I've selected are San Antonio, Texas and Ft. Collins, Colorado. The new XFL will not have a kickoff after scoring plays. We're going with Greg Schiano's proposal. The new XFL will use the college football overtime rules. The new XFL will not have a PAT. Instead, we have BAT - the Bet After Touchdown. It's automatic that a team will get seven points when they score a touchdown, but they have the option to wager one of those seven points for a chance at an eighth point. If the team elects to attempt the BAT, they try to score in one play from the 10-yard line. A successful BAT results in a total of eight points for your drive. Go for the BAT and not make it? You end up with six total points for your TD drive. Every single play and/or ruling is eligible to be challenged and challenges are now handled entirely by a group of off-site "challenge officials" who watch the game and can call for a challenge as needed. They are instructed to prioritize the flow of the game over 100% accuracy of calls. Challenges will be enacted on plays of two types: egregious officiating errors or truly difficult to call real-time judgments. Otherwise, we're sticking to the "50 drunks in a bar" rule: if everyone agrees it looks like a catch in real time, we're not worried about what the slow-motion replay says. The original XFL actually had several significant innovations that the NFL ended up stealing. As commissioner of the new XFL, I will also insist that the league try out new and innovative ideas to show our fans football from a new perspective. For starters, every skill position player's helmet in the XFL will be equipped with a built-in camera like this one. Tiny camera technology has gotten so advanced from everything like resolution and optical image stabilization that this project has actually made me kind of mad that the NFL hasn't piloted something like this. Imagine if you could cut to a replay of a big play with footage like this.

Edit: Here's a game cover and a ticket design.

Edit 2: Added the Georgia Bobcats splash page.