Whatever the outcome of Saturday’s regular-season finale between the San Antonio Brahmas and St. Louis Battlehawks, the teams will play again eight days later in the semifinals of the United Football League playoffs.

Saturday’s game will decide whether the postseason game is played in San Antonio or St. Louis. With by far the best attendance in the UFL, the Battlehawks have a 4-0 record at home this season, but St. Louis doesn’t know yet if quarterback AJ McCarron will be able to play on Saturday – or even if it would be smart to play the former Alabama All-American.

McCarron has missed the past two games because of an ankle injury.

“As we move forward, to be quite frank, it’s day-to-day still,” Battlehawks coach Anthony Becht said on Monday. “He has a significant ankle injury that we’re trying to get better. It is getting better every day, but there’s things quarterbacks have to do to be able to function properly. He’s a warrior. He’s a competitor. He’s a quick healer. He wants to be out there.

“I got to make the right decision on how to go about it, and still it’s a battle there. Our point is we’re still taking this day-to-day, and when we come to a decision that he’s ready to go and can help us at a level that he knows he can help us at and we feel good about it, then we’ll make that decision.”

Manny Wilkins played quarterback in St. Louis’ 26-21 victory over the D.C. Defenders on May 19 and 36-22 loss to the Arlington Renegades on Saturday.

McCarron was inactive against the Defenders but was in uniform against the Renegades.

In the fourth quarter of Saturday’s loss, the Battlehawks had three possessions trailing by nine points. In the UFL, that’s still a one-possession game, since the league’s conversion options include a 3-point opportunity. The possessions ended with a punt and two interceptions, with the second pick returned for a touchdown by Renegades safety Joe Powell.

Becht said inserting McCarron to try to tie the game in the fourth quarter was not an option.

“We were winning or losing that game with Manny all the way through,” Becht said. “(McCarron) was truly an emergency two.”

St. Louis’ final three possessions against Arlington ended in interceptions.

“The interceptions – we can’t have them,” Becht said. “As you get to the back end, the last one, just a poor miscommunication there, and the other two, Manny’s just got to know. There’s two defenders there, you got to know where to go with the ball. He’s got to make a better decision there.

“Hopefully, he grows from it. That’s the thing about Manny: Manny’s very coachable. And we need him to grow from it because we got to continue to work what we have until we have something different.

“Like I said, for three-and-a-half quarters, I thought Manny did a really good job. There’s a couple passes he’s going to want back. Even when we were down nine for a couple of those drives where we got back-to-back punts by our defense, we still had the chance to get down the field and make plays. We got a lot of weapons, and we feel good about that. But again those critical errors totally deflated that opportunity, and we have to be better at that.”

San Antonio and St. Louis will play at 6 p.m. June 9 for a spot in the UFL Championship Game. The location of the second game of the Brahmas-Battlehawks twinbill will be determined by the outcome of their Saturday contest.

At 7-2, the Brahmas have a one-game lead on St. Louis at the top of the XFL Conference standings. But if the Battlehawks win when the teams square off at 3 p.m. CDT Saturday at the Dome at America’s Center in St. Louis, they would have swept the season series with San Antonio and earn the No. 1 seed for the XFL Conference Championship Game in St. Louis.

Becht said the Battlehawks would not be concerned about Game 2 in Game 1.

“What do you got on tape?” Becht said. “They got nine games of offensive and defensive looks. There’s no secrets at this point. It’s about execution; it’s about winning your one-on-one matchups. I think all that stuff, we can overthink that. But for us, we’re trying to win this game, so we’re not worried about what we’re showing or what we’re doing. We’re worried about getting our guys prepared so we can get in that groove heading into the playoffs. San Antonio, I don’t know how they’re going to go about it, but for us, it’s all hands on deck, and we got to be ready to rock ‘n’ roll.”

The Battlehawks have averaged 34,361.5 for their four home games this season. San Antonio’s biggest home crowd in 2024 has been 13,164, and the largest turnout for a Brahmas’ game this season was 14,303 in D.C.

The UFL Championship Game already is set for St. Louis at 4 p.m. June 16.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1