The USFL’s best played in Birmingham last year. It couldn’t have been any other way: The league staged its entire 2022 regular-season schedule in the Magic City. It turned out the team designated to represent Birmingham, the Stallions, also won the USFL championship.

For the 2023 season, the USFL divided its eight teams among four cities, but the best two still have played in Birmingham.

Entering this weekend’s final slate of regular-season games, the Stallions have a playoff position secured, and the team they share Protective Stadium with has the inside track at joining Birmingham in the postseason.

If the New Orleans Breakers defeat the Houston Gamblers on Sunday, then they would square off against the Stallions in the playoffs at 6 p.m. CDT June 25 at their common home for a spot in the USFL Championship Game.

At 7-2, Birmingham has the best record in the USFL. The question for the Stallions in the regular-season finale is if they’ll wear their home or away uniforms in the playoff game. If Birmingham beats the Memphis Showboats on Saturday, the Stallions will be the No. 1 seed in the South Division. If Birmingham loses and New Orleans wins this weekend, both teams would finish with 7-3 records, and the Breakers would be the home team for next week’s playoff meeting because of a better division record.

The scenarios provide Stallions coach Skip Holtz the option of resting key players in the regular-season finale.

“We can talk about maybe getting some people healthy with where we are at some positions,” Holtz said after last week’s victory over the Gamblers. “We don’t have enough to sit everybody down and bring the ‘B’ team, so to speak. But we’ve got to look at it. I don’t know how we’ll play it right now, but there’s one more game. I’ll talk to the leadership council about how they want to handle it, and then we’ll make some decisions as a team.”

Houston and Memphis have 5-4 records, so if the Gamblers beat the Breakers, the teams would be tied. If the Showbeats beat Birmingham, too, there would be a three-way tie for second in the South with one playoff position available.

And Sunday night’s Philadelphia Stars-Michigan Panthers game might decide the South’s No. 2 team.

If the Breakers and Gamblers are tied for second, they would have split their season series (the first tiebreaker) and have the same division record (the second tiebreaker).

The third tiebreaker is the won-lost record of the teams each has defeated. New Orleans and Houston have common victories over the New Jersey Generals, Pittsburgh Maulers, Stallions and Showboats. The difference is the Breakers have beaten the Panthers and the Gamblers have beaten the Stars.

Philadelphia has a 4-5 record, and Michigan owns a 3-6 mark. In the case of a New Orleans-Houston tie, a Stars’ victory on Sunday would put the Gamblers in the playoffs.

A Panthers’ victory over Philadelphia would trigger the fourth tiebreaker – net points in all games, which favors the Breakers. New Orleans has outscored its opponents by 46 points, and Houston has been outscored by six points.

If it’s a three-way tie with Memphis in the mix, too, the scenarios are much the same – head-to-head splits, same division record and the difference in victories would be the Breakers and Showboats with wins over Michigan against the Gamblers with a win over Philadelphia.

A Panthers’ victory again would move the tie to No. 4, and Memphis doesn’t stack up any better than Houston against New Orleans. The Showboats have been outscored by 10 points this season.

The North Division doesn’t have a team with a winning record, but two will go to the playoffs. Like the Panthers, the Generals and Maulers have 3-6 records. New Jersey and Pittsburgh square off on Saturday.

If Philadelphia beats Michigan, the Stars will be the No. 1 seed for the playoff game at 7 p.m. June 24 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton, Ohio, and they’ll play the winner of the Generals-Maulers game.

If the Panthers beat Philadelphia, Michigan will go to the playoffs with the winner of the New Jersey-Pittsburgh game. Even though that would leave three North teams with 4-6 records, the Stars would be out because of their 2-4 division mark.

In the USFL’s Week 10 games:

· The Maulers and the Generals meet at noon CDT Saturday at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium. USA will televise the game.

· The Stallions and Showboats square off at 3 p.m. Saturday at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee. FOX will televise the game.

· The Breakers and Gamblers play at 3 p.m. Sunday at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium. FS1 will televise the game.

· The Stars and Panthers face off a 6 p.m. Sunday at Ford Field in Detroit. FOX will televise the game.

Next week’s playoff winners will square off for the USFL championship at 7 p.m. July 1 at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.

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