The teams are: Laces, Mist, Rose, Lunar Owls, Phantom, Vinyl, and the two new additions \u2014 Hive and Breeze. <\/p>\n
Gameplay features three seven-minute quarters with a game clock, an 18-second shot clock, and six fouls per player. <\/p>\n
The fourth quarter of play uses a \u201cwinning score\u201d rule. This means at the end of the third quarter, officials determine a winning score by adding 11 points to the leading team\u2019s score. The first team to get to that winning number wins the game. <\/p>\n
In addition to the two new teams, another change this season is a development pool of six players. None of these athletes are assigned to a specific team at the start of the season but remain on-site and serve as injury-relief players. <\/p>\n
WNBA players Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier founded Unrivaled in 2023 to give players a new option for offseason play. <\/p>\n Within just one year, the league raised $35 million in capital<\/a> and attracted sponsors like Miller Lite and Under Armour, while being backed by other professional athletes including U.S. women\u2019s soccer star Alex Morgan. <\/p>\n Unrivaled began with six teams and 36 total players, with each of the 36 earning more than $220,000 in salary<\/a>. The league also offers players equity and revenue sharing, which has created an incentive for WNBA players to not head overseas during the offseason. <\/p>\n In its second season, the league will feature more than a dozen first-time players, including Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum, Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell, and Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers. <\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Diane Richardson is an advocate for the WNBA. She says Unrivaled will get Philly ready for its franchise.<\/a><\/p>\n While Unrivaled games typically are played at Sephora Arena in Medley, Fla., the 2026 season has one scheduled stop in Philadelphia. <\/p>\n Philly is Unrivaled, a doubleheader announced in October at LOVE Park, is set for Friday at Xfinity Mobile Arena. <\/p>\n Game 1 is Breeze against Phantoms (7:30 p.m.), while the second game features last year\u2019s champion, Rose, against the Lunar Owls (8:45 p.m.). <\/p>\n For the 2026 season, Unrivaled games can be viewed on traditional TV via TNT and truTV or streamed on HBO Max. Both games of Philly is Unrivaled will air on those channels. <\/p>\n Stateside Live! has partnered with the league and Miller Lite to offer watch parties<\/a> for Friday\u2019s doubleheader. The official pregame begins at 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n Natasha Cloud, a guard for Phantom, is a Broomall<\/a> native and graduate of Cardinal O\u2019Hara and St. Joseph\u2019s. Cloud, a three-time WNBA All-Defensive team honoree, was traded to New York Liberty ahead of the 2025 WNBA season after stints with the Phoenix Mercury and Washington Mystics. <\/p>\n This also is a pro hoops homecoming for North Philly native and \u2019s Kahleah Copper, who plays for Rose and the Mercury. She starred at Penn Charter before moving on to Rutgers. Copper, a four-time WNBA All-Star, also won a gold medal with the United States women\u2019s basketball team at the Paris Olympics<\/a> in 2024. <\/p>\n While she won\u2019t be competing in Philly is Unrivaled, former Villanova<\/a> star Maddy Siegrist is playing for Laces in her debut Unrivaled season. Siegrist set Villanova\u2019s all-time scoring record before getting drafted third overall by the Dallas Wings.<\/p>\n While Philly is Unrivaled is officially sold out<\/a>, tickets are still available on the secondary market via websites such as Ticketmaster and StubHub. Prices started at $35 for standing room only, as of Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n Unrivaled tickets for the league\u2019s Florida games can be purchased on their website<\/a> or resale ticket websites, including Ticketmaster<\/a>, Vivid Seats<\/a>, and GoTickets<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA kicks off its 30th season in May, but that doesn\u2019t mean fans have to wait until…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439821,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,182256,630],"class_list":["post-439820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-what-is-unrivaled-womens-basketball","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Lunar](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/3NO3VP5QDOETTITVVPJAPI6KDY.jpg\")
Lunar Owls forward Napheesa Collier (right) and Skylar Diggins are among injured Unrivaled players this season.Read more<\/a>Rebecca Blackwell \/ AP<\/p>\n![\"Breeze](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/HGQUMLXC3JAS6HR4DPUUG2CN2U.jpg\")
Breeze guard Paige Bueckers (5) is defended by Phantom guard Tiffany Hayes in their Unrivaled season opener.Read more<\/a>Rebecca Blackwell \/ AP<\/p>\n