The Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) is a women's professional softball league in the United States, founded in 2024 and run by Athletes Unlimited. The AUSL was announced on June 4, 2024, and the inaugural season began in 2025, with the league playing games in several cities across the United States. In 2026, the league transitioned to a permanent city-based structure for each team. The teams compete in a 30-game regular season along with a postseason championship season. In 2025, Major League Baseball announced its investment in the league and is aiming to establish a long-term professional women's softball league.
History On June 4, 2024, Athletes Unlimited announced a new softball league, that would feature four teams playing a 30-game season in a traditional format, complementing the existing Athletes Unlimited Pro Softball Championship season. ESPN signed on as a founding broadcast partner. For the inaugural season in 2025 teams did not have home cities but rather toured with games in ten different cities. The average salary for a player will be $40,000–45,000, with salaries up to $75,000 achievable through bonus payments. Lexi Kilfoyl was drafted first overall by the Bandits in the inaugural AUSL draft. Kim Ng was appointed AUSL commissioner on April 16, 2025.
On May 29, 2025, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced a strategic investment in the Athletes Unlimited Softball League to help establish the AUSL as a sustainable organization.
For the upcoming 2026 season, the AUSL has expanded the league from the original four teams to six teams. Each of these six team will now have home fields and cities to play for. The six teams involved in the league will play 25 game regular season. That will be followed the best of 3 finals.
Draft After the 2025 AUSL season concluded, on December 1, 2025, the AUSL expansion draft took place. The expansion draft 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. The expansion teams then 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 six 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.
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. If an athlete receives a golden ticket it means that a current AUSL team has selected them to be a part of their team. The team the athlete has been selected by 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 were 17 total golden tickets handed out. On May 4, 2026, the AUSL College Draft took place. This draft determined which team the golden ticket winners will play for.
2026 Golden Ticket Recipients +PlayerTeamPositionNiJaree Canady (Hold Out)Texas TechPitcherReese AtwoodTexasCatcher Leighann Goode TexasInfielderSydney Stewart Arizona CatcherKarlyn PickensTennessee PitcherDakota KennedyArkansasOutfielderKenzie BrownArizona StatePitcherTaryn KernStanfordInfielderMaya JohnsonBelmontPitcherJocelyn EricksonFloridaCatcherKenleigh CahalanFloridaInfielderJordan Woolery UCLAInfielderTaylor TinsleyUCLAPitcherMegan GrantUCLAUtility Amari HarperOregonUtilityAilana AgbayaniOklahoma InfielderPeja GooldMississippi State Pitcher
Reserve Pools For the remaining seniors that are in college softball they still have the opportunity to be picked up as a provisional pick. A provisional pick is any graduating senior who did not receive a golden ticket. Provisional picks if selected to the reserve pool can be picked up by an AUSL team when needed throughout the season. These athletes can be called upon if AUSL teams have injuries, players have other commitments or for additional flexibility. Once these athletes join a team they can potentially compete to earn a full-time roster spot.
2026 Reserve Pool Athletes +PlayerTeamPositionKaiah AltmeyerTexasOutfielderJordy FrahmNebraskaPitcherSydney BerzonOklahomaPitcherElon ButlerOregonUtilityHannah CamenzindNebraskaOutfielderCassidy CurdDukePitcherAbby DaytonOklahomaPitcherIsabela EmerlingOklahomaCatcherSarah GordonGeorgia CatcherLyndsey GreinOregonPitcherRobyn HerronArkansasPitcherGrace Jenkins ArizonaCatcherReagan JohnsonArkansasOutfielderJackie LisTexas TechUtilityRiver Mahler StanfordInfielderRuby MeylanOklahoma StatePitcherKennedy PowellTexas A&MInfielderKeirsten RooseGeorgia InfielderKiarra SellsMississippi State OutfielderElise Sokolsky OregonPitcherAminah VegaDukeInfielder
Women's Sports Growth Before the AUSL came about in 2025, the Athlete's Unlimited Pro Softball Championship Series started August 19, 2020. 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. 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. Which later led to the partnership between the MLB and the AUSL. 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. 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.
The expansion of the AUSL has been one of the biggest additions for the sport of softball. Softball is returning to the Olympics in 2028 for the Los Angeles games. This makes the 2026 AUSL season more prevalent for the pro-players and for the fans of the sport.
Champions +YearTeamLocationOpponentSeries Score 2025 Utah Talons Tuscaloosa, AL Chicago Bandits 2–0 2026 Utah Talons College Station, TX Chicago Bandits 2–0
Teams
List of Athletes Unlimited Softball League teams Team Location Stadium Chicago Bandits Rosemont, Illinois Parkway Bank Sports Complex 2025 Carolina Blaze Durham, North Carolina Smith Family Stadium 2025 Portland Cascade Hillsboro, Oregon Hillsboro Ballpark 2026 Oklahoma City Spark Oklahoma City, Oklahoma Tom Heath Field 2026 Utah Talons Salt Lake City, Utah Dumke Family Stadium 2025 Texas Volts Round Rock, Texas Dell Diamond 2025
References
External links Official website