in the league's championship game, the Super Bowl. Nationwide, the NFL obtains the highest television ratings among major sports. Watching NFL games on television on Sunday afternoons has become a common routine for many Americans during the football season. Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest annual sporting event held in the United States. The Super Bowl itself is always among the highest-rated programs of all-time in the Nielsen ratings. The NFL has the highest average attendance (67,591) of any professional sports league in the world and has the highest revenue out of any single professional sports league. Since 2019, at least one other professional football league has played in each NFL offseason: the Alliance of American Football played eight weeks in winter 2019 before its owner withdrew funding; the XFL—a reimagining of a 2001 league of the same name—played five weeks in winter 2020 before government stay-at-home orders forced the league to shut down, and resumed under new ownership in winter 2023; and the United States Football League—which used abandoned trademarks from, but shares no ownership with, a 1980s league of the same name—began play in spring 2022. All of these leagues pay substantially lower salaries than the NFL and have had lower and less consistent attendance, though popularity in non-NFL markets (such as the XFL's St. Louis BattleHawks) can be robust. Millions watch college football throughout the fall months, and some communities, particularly in rural areas, place great emphasis on their local high school football teams. The popularity of college and high school football in areas such as the Southern United States (Southeastern Conference) and the Great Plains (Big 12 Conference and Big Ten Conference) stems largely from the fact that these areas historically generally did not possess markets large enough for a professional team. Nonetheless, college football has a rich history in the United States, predating the NFL by decades, and fans and alumni are generally very passionate about their teams. During football season in the fall, fans have the opportunity to watch high school games on Fridays and Saturdays, college football on Saturdays, and NFL games on Sundays, the usual playing day of the professional teams. However, some colleges play games on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, while the NFL offers weekly games on Monday (since 1970) and Thursday (since 2006). As recently as 2013, one could find a nationally televised professional or college game on television any