Seismic changes in the world of professional football were the trend in 1946.  The Hollywood Bears and the Los Angeles Bulldogs once had Los Angeles to themselves in 1945, but in 1946, they faced competition from the NFL (with the Los Angeles Rams) and the All-America
Football Conference (with the Los Angeles Dons).  While two occupants of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum were drawing dozens of thousands to their home games in 1946, the Bulldogs (in Gilmore Stadium) and the Bears (in Gilmore Field) were having difficulty getting paying people to their much smaller stadia.  Another major change came with the rebreaking of the NFL's 12-year-old "color barrier" when the Rams signed two of the PCFL's top stars, Woody Strode and Kenny Washington (both of the Hollywood Bears), it began a slow erosion of the PCFL's most important talent base: the black players in American professional football that, up to that point, the NFL had refused to allow into their league.  In the meantime, the PCFL expanded to a record nine teams and had divisional play for the only time in its history (the two division champions would play a single game for the league title). New teams include the Tacoma Indians, Sacramento Nuggets, and the Hawaiian Warriors. The San Jose Mustangs were sold and relocated to Utah, becoming the Salt Lake Seagulls. The Hawaiians played all their games at home, and generally in two-game sets to minimize travel expenses for the mainland opponents.  With their own officiating crew, the Warriors had a perceived advantage as they consistently played in front of crowds of upward of 15,000 people. The PCFL, the Dixie League, and the American Association (which changed its name to the American Football League for the 1946 season) entered into a working arrangement with the NFL, agreeing to being, in essence, a farm league to the “big boys” and not allowing any participants in “any outlaw league” (specifically the AAFC) to be a member of any PCFL team.  The compact was formalized March 24, 1946, with the
announcement of the formation of the Association of Professional Football Leagues.  The 1946 season ended in controversy as the Northern Division title was determined by a game in which the San Francisco Clippers apparently defeated the Los Angeles Bulldogs by a score of 24-19 and claimed the top spot in the division.  When Clippers owner Frank Ciraolo entered his team's locker room to participate in the victory celebration, he noticed that John Woudenberg, tackle for the San Francisco 49ers, was wearing a uniform that was assigned to the Clippers’ Courtney Thorell.  After the “discrepancy” was reported to league officials, the game was declared a 1-0 forfeit to the Bulldogs.  As a result, the Northern Division champions were the Tacoma Indians.  The Bulldogs, with 11 players with NFL experience, defeated Tacoma in the league championship game, 38-7, on January 19, 1947.  It was the last game of the Indians’ existence.  Although the Salt Lake Seagulls had three games cancelled in 1946, they would return for another season; but not so the Oakland Giants.  The Hollywood Bears took another leave of absence.