2026 Major League Rugby season

The 2026 Major League Rugby season is the ninth season of Major League Rugby (MLR), the professional rugby union competition sanctioned by USA Rugby. The regular season will begin on March 28, with the season being concluded on June 21 in the MLR Championship Final.^[1] The 2026 season will feature six teams, a downsizing from the previous season, the lowest in the league's history.

For the second time, the MLR Championship Final will be played at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois.^[2]

• Major League Rugby and the United States Rugby Players Association (USRPA) sign the first-ever collective bargaining agreement in American rugby history.^[3]

In December 2025, Major League Rugby (MLR) announced the schedule for the upcoming 2026 season, which included major changes to the competition's format.^[4] At the time of the scheduled release, five MLR teams had folded (Houston SaberCats, Miami Sharks, New Orleans Gold, and Utah Warriors),^[5][6][7][8] while two other clubs (San Diego Legion, RFC Los Angeles) merged to create a new team known as California Legion.^[9] Subsequently six teams were still active in the MLR.

The new season format, as announced by the MLR, was a six team competition, without any conference divisions:^[10][4]

• Each team plays ten regular-season games, facing every other team twice (home and away).
• The top four teams qualify for the playoffs; #1 vs #4 and #2 vs #3 in the semi-finals.

Ahead of the 2026 season, MLR announced the introduction of the Referee Review System (RRS), replacing the television match official (TMO) with an In Stadium Replay Operator (ISRO) with the goal of enhancing real-time decision-making and ensuring consistency across matches. Under this system, the on-field referee can request assistance or a team may challenge a referee's decision, similar to replay review in other North American sports leagues. Teams will be allowed two challenges per game, and will retain a challenge if the call is successfully overturned.^[11]

In addition, unsuccessful challenges within the final five minutes of either half will result in the forfeiture of all remaining team challenges. A review may only be initiated within two phases of play of the incident, with the exception of violations of Law 9, which may be reviewed at any stage of the game. The game clock will be stopped during each review, and teams are unable to substitute during the review. After each match, the league will complete a post-match review to ensure compliance and track statistics from the RRS.^[12]

The table below shows each team's progression throughout the season. For each round, their cumulative points total is shown with the overall log position in brackets:

The 2026 season will see the introduction of Sunday Night Rugby, the league's first weekly primetime game. The broadcast will include a pregame show similar to the NFL's Monday Night Countdown, as well as a post-match show, both hosted by former San Diego Legion and Eagles' fly-half Will Hooley. The 2026 Sunday Night Rugby schedule will comprise of nine regular season matches, beginning in Week 3, as well as one semifinal match during the MLR Playoffs. Matches will be broadcast on ESPN+, with a few select matches aired on ESPN2.^[19]

In addition to Hooley, the broadcast team for the 2026 season will consist of Ben Holden (Play-by-Play Commentator), Claudia Bellofatto (In-Studio Announcer), and Brianna Kim (Analyst/Reporter).^[20]