Athletes Unlimited Softball League

Draft

After the 2025 AUSL season concluded, on Dec. 1, 2025 the AUSL expansion draft took place. The expansion draft^[13] is for the two new teams joining the league to draft players for their teams. The expansion draft started by the four previous teams in the league getting to choose five players they want to keep on their team. These players are called "protected players", and once protected they can not be drafted by expansion teams. Now, the two new expansion teams will get to draft their players from a group of unprotected players. Each of the new expansion teams will get to draft up to eight players with a minimum of 6 players for their team.

The next process included the allocation draft. This draft is where all AUSL teams can select any athletes that are not listed on an AUSL team. The last and final draft that will take place is the College draft, this draft will take place in May. ^[14]

Golden Tickets

For the AUSL College Draft, each team will get to select up to two college softball players to join their team. Throughout the college softball season softball legends will go and hand out the AUSL Golden Tickets. An AUSL golden ticket serves as an invitation to the upcoming College Draft^[15]. If an athlete receives a golden ticket it means that a current AUSL team has selected you to be a part of their team. The team the athlete has been selected to remains unannounced until the College Draft in May, where the team that has drafted the athlete is announced.

During the 2026 college softball season there are 17 total golden tickets that are handed out. On May 4, 2026 at 7p.m. ET on ESPN 2 the AUSL College Draft will take place^[16]. This draft will determine which team the golden ticket winners will places on.^[16]

Reserve Pools

For the remaining seniors that are in college softball they still have the opportunity to be picked up as a provisional pick.^[17] A provisional pick is any graduating senior who did not receive a golden ticket.^[17] Provisional picks if selected to the reserve pool can be picked up by an AUSL when needed throughout the season. ^[17] These athletes can be called upon if AUSL teams have injuries, players have other commitments or for additional flexibility. ^[17] Once these athletes join a team they can potentially compete to earn a full-time roster spot. ^[17]

Women's Sports Growth

Before the AUSL came about in 2025, the Athlete's Unlimited Pro Softball Championship Series started Aug. 19, 2020.^[18] The AU Championship Series brought athletes together to compete on teams that were based upon individual and team points. Which then an individual winner was crowned at the end of the season based upon which athlete had the most cumulative team and individual points. ^[19] Then in 2022, AU Softball created a shortened version called AUX. AUX was only two weeks long and also crowned an individual winner after the two weeks were completed.

The advancement of AU Pro Softball was able to continue to happen because of the continued growth of engagement that pro softball is having. ^[20] Which later led to the partnership between the MLB and the AUSL. ^[2] During the 2025 AUSL softball season teams traveled to different cities to help determine where the permanent host cities would be. The 2025 season had 20 sold-out games. ^[21]The championship series between the Talons and Bandits had 347,000 views on ESPN. The AUSL website also had 5.3 million views on their website and 240 million impressions on AUSL social media. ^[21]

The expansion of the AUSL has been one of the biggest additions for the sport of softball. ^[22]Softball is returning to the Olympics in 2028 for the Los Angeles games^[22]. This makes the 2026 AUSL season more prevalent for the pro-players and for the fans of the sport. ^[22]

Notes

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