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NCAA-to-pro pipeline: Softball

June 24, 2024
Like many women’s sports, softball’s professional history is messy, but now, one innovative league is bringing stability to the game. Here’s everything you need to know about the top diamond destination for the NCAA’s best: Athletes Unlimited (AU).
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NCAA-to-pro pipeline: SoftballNCAA-to-pro pipeline: Softball
Source: Athletes Unlimited

The GIST: Like many women’s sports, softball’s professional history is messy, but now, one innovative league is bringing stability to the game. Here’s everything you need to know about the top diamond destination for the NCAA’s best: Athletes Unlimited (AU).

The process: AU actually offers three pro softball leagues under one umbrella: AUX, AU Pro Softball, and the nascent AUSL, which launches next summer. AUX’s hyper-compact, three-week season kicks off the summer with 42 players before AU Pro Softball’s five-week stint (aka the Championship series) brings 60 athletes to the plate. Some softballers play in both, while others stick to just one league.

  • For college players who have exhausted their NCAA eligibility, the AU journey begins with April’s draft. This year, 15 2024 grads were selected, but the draft isn’t the only way into AU: Undrafted rookies can also receive pro contracts.

The pipeline: This college-to-pro pipeline is strong: Every single rostered AU player came up through the NCAA, and many moonlight as college assistant coaches in the offseason.

  • That said, a college softball player’s chances of going pro in the U.S. are even smaller than many other sports: This season, there are just 61 players between AUX and the Championship series.
  • Even if those 61 were only from the current NCAA rosters, that would equate to just 0.01% of the over 6K DI ballplayers.

The names: With those slim odds, it’s no surprise that the 2024 rookies are the best of the best — and are already impressing as pros. In her first AUX season, undrafted Clemson grad McKenzie Clark made an impact right off the, ahem, bat, playing well enough to be named a captain for Series 2.

  • And Tigers fans are even more excited for the Championship series, where Clark’s college teammate Valerie Cagle — the 2023 Player of the Year and 2024’s No. 1 AU draft pick — will step into the circle to toss her first pro pitch. Can’t wait.
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