How the PLL Draft Works

The PLL draft is the Premier Lacrosse League’s annual college draft, in which the league’s professional teams select eligible college players ahead of the season. It works much like the drafts in other major sports: teams pick in reverse order of the previous season’s standings, so the weakest teams choose first, across several rounds.

For the top graduating college lacrosse players, the PLL draft is the main gateway to the professional game, which is why it draws a burst of attention every spring. Here is how the draft is structured, who is eligible, how the order is set, and why it matters for players and teams alike.

What the PLL is

The Premier Lacrosse League was founded by professional star Paul Rabil and his brother Mike Rabil, and played its first season in 2019. It quickly became the premier outdoor (field) professional lacrosse league in North America, and after early years using a touring, team-based model it moved to a city-based structure with eight franchises. That eight-team setup shapes the draft directly, since each team is filling a relatively small roster from the incoming class.

Because pro lacrosse rosters are compact compared with leagues like the NFL, every draft pick matters. A single selection can meaningfully change a team’s outlook for the coming season.

How the draft is structured

The draft follows the familiar pro-sports template but on a smaller scale. The table below summarizes its key features.

Feature	How the PLL draft handles it
Timing	Spring, ahead of the summer season
Rounds	Historically around four
Total picks	Roughly 32 (eight teams over four rounds)
Order	Reverse of the previous season’s standings
Eligibility	Graduating college players and others who qualify

With about four rounds and eight teams, a typical draft produces in the region of 32 selections, though trades and forfeited picks can shift the count. The compressed format means the early picks especially carry outsized importance.

Who is eligible and how the order works

Eligibility centers on players finishing their college careers, graduating seniors and others who have used up their NCAA eligibility, plus any additional players who qualify under league rules. In practice the pool is led by the standout talent from Division I programs, including the players who compete for the sport’s biggest individual honors. Our explainer on the Tewaaraton Award, college lacrosse’s top prize, profiles exactly the kind of stars who headline a draft class.

The order itself is set by the previous season’s standings in reverse, so the teams that finished lowest select first. This is the standard mechanism for keeping a league competitive, giving weaker teams first access to the best incoming players. Teams can trade picks, moving up to grab a coveted prospect or down to gather more selections, so the order fans see on draft night is not always the raw standings.

Why the draft matters

For players, being drafted is the moment college stardom becomes a professional career, and it feeds directly into the earnings side of the game; our breakdown of PLL salaries shows what the league now pays its players once they arrive. For teams, the draft is a central tool for building a roster in a league where depth is thin and a single impact rookie can swing a season. And for fans, it has become a reliable annual event that re-peaks in interest each spring as the next wave of talent turns pro.

The short version: the PLL draft is the Premier Lacrosse League’s yearly college draft, run over roughly four rounds among its eight teams, with picks made in reverse order of the previous season’s standings. Eligible graduating college players enter the pro ranks through it, making it the key annual pipeline from college lacrosse to the professional field game.