The federal court judgement found the NFL guilty of violating antitrust guidelines on July 29, 1986, but the USFL was only awarded $1 (eventually raised to $3.76 through automatic trebling and compound interest, though the league never claimed the money) in damages plus court costs, as the jury found that the actions of the USFL owners had done as much in detriment to themselves as did the actions of the NFL.

The Bandits were in ownership turmoil as the result of co-owner Stephen Arky's 1985 suicide[4] and the terminal illness of majority owner John F. Bassett, who died in May 1986; even if Bassett had been well enough to continue in the league, he was an outspoken opponent of sharing a market with the NFL's Buccaneers in the fall and had planned to pull the Bandits out of the league to start a spring circuit of his own,[5][6] which at one point—possibly due to delirium brought on by brain cancer—Bassett had proposed as a multiple-sport league.

[7] Eventually, the league found an ownership group willing to take Bassett's place: Lee Scarfone and Tony Cunningham agreed to field the Tampa Bay Bandits in the USFL for the fall 1986 season.

For Birmingham's Rollie Dotsch, it would be too late: by the time he returned to coaching as an NFL assistant in 1987, he had developed terminal cancer.

Michaels, Memphis's Pepper Rodgers and Arizona's Frank Kush effectively ended their careers after the USFL ceased operations (Kush's personal services contract meant he would never have to work again; Rodgers would briefly return to coaching in 1995, while Michaels claimed he was blacklisted by the NFL in his efforts to find paying work afterward).

Corso would move to broadcasting, beginning a long career working for ESPN as a college football analyst.

Five teams would have made the playoffs, with a single play-in game to be held the weekend of January 17–18, two semifinals on January 25 and 26, and the league championship on February 1; the fourth USFL Championship Game was to be hosted at the Gator Bowl Stadium in Jacksonville, Florida.

[12] The USFL secured a television contract extension with ESPN to carry a game of the week during the regular season and the entirety of the playoffs.

Einhorn also had access to his own TVS Television Network, an experienced sports syndicator; the USFL could have also relied on its local broadcast partners, many of which were independent stations not beholden to the NFL or Big Three, and regional sports networks to continue coverage had they chosen to do so.)