The2025 season ofUnrivaled was the league's inaugural season. Six teams will play aregular season of matches in January to March to contest four places in asingle-eliminationplayoff tournament that determines the champions of the league.
Location of the primary venue for the league's matches inMedley, Florida.
On October 24, the inaugural six team names were announced.[1] For the 2025 season, teams did not have designated geographic connections, although the branding was created with a consideration for potential future sale and relocation of the teams.[1]
On November 15, 2024, the 2025 head coaches were announced:Phil Handy,Adam Harrington, Nola Henry, DJ Sackmann,Teresa Weatherspoon, and Andrew Wade.[2] On November 20, after the team selection, the head coaches were each assigned to a team.[3]
For the inaugural season, Unrivaled was originally announced to consist of 30 professional players with six 5-player teams.[4] Starting in July 2024, the players for the 2025 season began to be announced one-by-one on Unrivaled's social media accounts.[4] Hints were given on social media before roster announcements, encouraging fans to engage and make their guesses on the next Unrivaled roster addition. In late October 2024, the league announced it had "surpassed its initial financial targets" and would be expanding the inaugural season roster to 36 total players and increase the individual team roster size to six players.[5]
On November 20, 2024, players were divvied into their Unrivaled teams with the event being streamed on the league'sYouTube channel.[6][7] During the selection process, players were assigned to six pods (six players in each pod).[8] The head coaches then assigned one player from each pod to create balanced rosters for each club. Once all rosters were set, the head coaches were then made aware of which team they would be coaching for the 2025 season.[8] At the time of the selection show, only 34 players had been confirmed to be participating in the 2025 season.[9] The final two players were drafted as wildcards within Pod D and went to Lunar Owls BC and Phantom BC.[10] Teams with a wildcard selection were able to recruit and sign player of their choosing.
In late November 2024,Kelsey Plum announced via social media that she would no longer be playing in the 2025 season and instead would "take some more time for myself this offseason," leaving Laces BC with a wildcard spot.[11] On December 17, 2024,Cameron Brink signed a multiyear deal with the Lunar Owls; however, Brink will not appear in the league until the 2026 season due to injury.[12] And on December 20, 2024, it was announced thatKatie Lou Samuelson had signed with Phantom BC.[13] On December 21, 2024, the league's first trades were announced: Laces BC tradedCourtney Williams to Lunar Owls BC forNatasha Cloud. Laces BC then traded Cloud and their wildcard pick to Phantom BC in exchange forJackie Young andTiffany Hayes.[14] The final wildcard spot, belonging to Phantom BC, was filled bySabrina Ionescu on December 23, 2024, in a signing deal that "puts her in a category of her own" in theUnrivaled league.[15][16]
The regular season began on January 17, 2025, with seven weeks of round-robin play.[27][28] For the 2025 season, all regular season games were played in a custom facility (Wayfair Arena) atMediapro Studios in theMiami suburb ofMedley, Florida.[29] Regular season games occurred three nights a week with two games played each night.[30]
Aone-on-onesingle-elimination tournament mid-season took place from February 10–14, 2025, with the winner earning a $200,000 paycheck.[31][a] In January 2025,Sprite was named the presenting partner of 2025 1 on 1 tournament.[33] The runner-up of the tournament will earn $50,000 and the remaining two semi-finalists, 25,000 each. Additionally, all clubmates of the winner earned $10,000 each.[34]
All games for the one-on-one tournament were played with a continuous clock to a winning score of 11 points or to 10 minutes in length, whichever occurred first. Theshot clock was set at seven seconds with players earning next possession after each made shot (also known asmake it, take it or winner's ball).[31]
From January 30 to February 2, 2025, fans were able to vote for any of the 30 players to determine their seedings within pods for the first round.[31] The first round began on February 10 and consisted of fourteen single-elimination 1-on-1 games across two televised sessions, with the top seeds in Pods A and D getting byes in the first round.[31] Eight second round games followed by the 4 quarterfinal games aired on February 11 ontruTV.[34] The final four remaining players appeared in the semifinals on February 14 and was followed immediately after with abest of three games for the final.[34] Notable exclusions from the player pool include Stefanie Dolson, Brittney Griner, Sabrina Ionescu, Angel Reese, and Courtney Vandersloot, as well as the leagues's 2025 relief players.[34]
On February 9, the league announced that Natasha Cloud, Tiffany Hayes, Marina Mabrey, Kate Martin, Kayla McBride, Alyssa Thomas, and Brittney Sykes had withdrawn from the 2025 1 on 1 tournament due to injury, resulting in multiplewalkovers in the bracket.[35]
At the conclusion of the regular season, the top four teams (Lunar Owls BC, Rose BC, Laces BC, and Vinyl BC) entered the playoffs to compete for the championship title in single-elimination games.[28] The postseason concluded on March 17, 2025.[27]
The first Unrivaled League Championship was won by Rose BC against Vinyl BC (62-54), with Chelsea Gray named as Finals MVP.
