Athletes Unlimited Softball League

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 Athletes Unlimited softball league was announced on June 4th, 2024, and the inaugural season began in 2025, with them playing games in several cities across the United States. In 2026, the league will transition to a permanent city-based structure for each team. The league competes 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 will feature four teams playing a 30-game season in a traditional format, complementing the existing Athletes Unlimited Pro Softball Championship season. ESPN has signed on as a founding broadcast partner. The AUSL will become a city-based league beginning in 2026, while the inaugural season in 2025 will be touring with games in six to eight 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 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.

Draft

After the 2025 AUSL season concluded, on Dec. 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 ", 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.

Golden Tickets

For the , 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 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 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 have been 8 golden tickets award so far. Those golden ticket recipients include Nijaree Canady, Pitcher from Texas Tech, Reese Atwood, Catcher from Texas, Leighann Goode, Infielder from Texas, Sydney Stewart, Catcher from Arizona, Karlyn Pickens, Pitcher from Tennessee, Dakota Kennedy, Outfielder from Arkansas, Kenzie Brown, Pitcher from Arizona State and Taryn Kern, Infielder from Stanford. There are still four golden tickets that remain to be handed out during the college softball season.

Champions

Teams

Notes

External links