OKLAHOMA CITY -- Starting next year, there will be more opportunities for star softball players to continue their careers professionally.
On Tuesday at the Women's College World Series, Athletes Unlimited announced a new Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL) that will feature four teams playing a 30-game season in a traditional format. This is in addition to the existing AU Pro Softball Championship Season, which launched in 2020 and is also 30 games over five weeks in July and August.
The inaugural AUSL 2025 season will be going on tour, with games in 6-8 cities. The league will move to a city-based format in 2026.
The existing AU Pro Softball Championship Season, which plays all its games at one site in Rosemont, Illinois, in the Chicago area, will be renamed the AUSL Champions Cup.
Softball legends Jessica Mendoza, Cat Osterman and Natasha Watley, who are advisers to the league, said they welcomed the expansion.
"Athletes Unlimited continues to have an open mind and view for what best serves our sport and athletes," Osterman, a three-time Olympic medalist and four-time All-American at Texas, said in a statement. "AUSL is much needed in our sport, as the traditional model is popular amongst fans, but also gives athletes the opportunity to develop and progress within the consistent environment of a season."
Watley, a two-time medalist and four-time All-American at UCLA, says she sees the league as another way to draw younger fans.
"The AUSL not only gives players another platform to showcase their talent at the highest level, but allows many athletes to extend their softball careers past college and professionally," Watley said in a statement. "It also (provides) millions of young girls the ability to follow their idols and aspire to be a professional athlete one day."
College softball has been experiencing a boom in popularity, and national team officials are hopeful the AUSL will continue to accelerate that, especially with softball returning as an Olympic sport in 2028 for the first time since 2021.
"USA Softball is extremely excited for this new era of Athletes Unlimited and believes it is a great step forward in growing the sport of softball," Craig Cress, CEO of USA Softball, said in a statement. "Providing these athletes with the chance to play professionally in a more traditional league will not only impact current athletes but also future generations of softball athletes."
ESPN is the founding broadcast partner of the AUSL and will carry at least 18 games on its television platforms in 2025.