Where Are the CoFL’s Last Two 2027 Teams Headed?

10/13/2026 | Snap Count Press |
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Two question marks. Eight teams. One Continental Cup. The Continental Football League is building toward an eight-club 2027 season, and right now the map has two empty pins: one out west in the South Division and one back east in the North. Six clubs are locked in. The last two haven’t been announced. So we did what any self-respecting football nerd would do: we went through every newsletter, video and post the league has put out, looking for clues.

Quick disclosure: Everything below that’s a guess is clearly labeled as Snap Count speculation, not a league announcement.

Who’s already in

Here’s the 2027 lineup so far, according to the league’s Teams page and its weekly newsletter, The Continental:

Indianapolis was announced in July with Lauren Boczek as President and Managing Partner (PF Newsroom), and the Caps made a splash in August by hiring former Colts kicker Mike Vanderjagt as head coach and GM. Milwaukee became official on Sept. 16 at the Ambassador Hotel, with Team President Ahmed Hollowell, and the city is voting on the team name and venue ahead of a Dec. 25 unveil (The Continental, Issue #19; Urban Milwaukee).

The format is simple and kind of awesome: four teams per division, an eight-game regular season, and the North and South champs meet in one game, the Continental Cup, in Indianapolis over Fourth of July weekend 2027 (Manny’s Minute EP9; Issue #21). The league says it expects to announce new expansion teams and full schedules in October (CoFL Teams page). It’s October. 👀

What the league has said about expansion

CEO Manny Matsakis has been dropping breadcrumbs all summer. A timeline:

  • July 18: In Issue #10, the Texas plan is “three solid markets in place, with one more targeted,” with “Fort Worth … under consideration to sharpen rivalries.” In the State of the CoFL video, Matsakis said, “I thought the Fort Worth location was a really good location” (Issue #10; State of the CoFL 2026).
  • July 24: “Two additional ownership groups are in active evaluation for 2027” (Issue #11).
  • Aug. 7: “Four new ownership groups” in active conversation, “two of those conversations are in Texas … and two are in the North” (Issue #13).
  • Aug. 21: “Two verbal commitments in the Northern Division” and “one solid meeting in the South” (Issue #15).
  • Sept. 18: With Milwaukee in, the North is set at three. Matsakis: “I am in active conversations with two separate ownership groups — one in Chicago, one in Detroit — to identify the best fourth Northern market.” On the South: “Two additional markets are in vetting right now” (Issue #19).
  • Sept. 25: Matsakis says he’s back on the road meeting prospective 2027 markets, with some conversations already looking ahead to 2028 (Issue #20).
  • Oct. 1: In the October State of the CoFL, “We’ve realized that being in NFL markets with great fan bases actually helps us” (State of the CoFL October).
  • Oct. 9: “Three excellent meetings with potential ownership groups as we work toward completing our lineup of teams for 2027,” but “an encouraging meeting and an approved club are not the same thing” (Issue #22).

Snap Count speculation: our two guesses

Big disclaimer: these are our educated guesses, not announcements. The league hasn’t named either market, and Matsakis has been clear that nothing is final until there’s a written commitment, a deposit and standards compliance.

South ‘?’ : the DFW area

Fort Worth is the Texas market the league has named out loud. Issue #10 says it’s “under consideration to sharpen rivalries,” and Matsakis said on video, “I thought the Fort Worth location was a really good location” (Issue #10, July 18; State of the CoFL video, July 18). DFW is also squarely NFL country, which fits Matsakis’ Oct. 1 point: “We’ve realized that being in NFL markets with great fan bases actually helps us” (State of the CoFL October). Our pick: a club somewhere in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

North ‘?’: Chicago (with Detroit right behind)

This one has a real paper trail. On Sept. 18, Matsakis named Chicago and Detroit as the two ownership groups competing for the fourth Northern spot (Issue #19). Since then, the league’s content machine has gone all-in on the Windy City: a Chicago Owls feature on coflfootball.com, Manny’s Minute EP13 “The Chicago Owls — 62 Points in an Empty Cathedral” on Oct. 7 (YouTube), and three straight Owls posts on X on Oct. 8, 10, and 12. Chicago is also an NFL market, matching the Oct. 1 comments.

One more thing worth knowing: the Ohio Valley Ironmen (Fleming Field, Shadyside, Ohio) played in the CoFL in 2026 before the club folded midseason, according to the league’s newsletter. That’s part of why Matsakis keeps preaching “standards first.” It’s a reminder that the league would rather wait than rush a team onto the map.

Want to own the answer?

The league is still taking ownership calls, and the pitch is: capitalized, locally connected and standards-aligned. If you think your city deserves one of those pins, the door is at coflfootball.com/ownership.

Either way, we’re close. The league said October, and the clock is running. Two pins, two cities and one wild summer of football coming in 2027. We’ll be here when the names drop.

Links and sources

Want more CoFL coverage? Follow @SASnapcount210 on X.