Major League Pickleball announces rule changes, standings updates for 2026 season
Last Edited
Jan 14 2026
Category
News
Major League Pickleball on Wednesday released several new rules for the 2026 season, as well as the format for the upcoming free-agency draft.
The biggest changes involve allowing teams to use their full six-person lineup in the same match, a new regular-season event format that will crown a winner at all nine regular-season events and a new way of awarding standings points.
The free-agency draft will operate similarly to the 2025 version, with teams bidding for each selection slot (minimum bid amounts to be shared at a later date). This gives teams the chance to utilize whatever bidding strategy they see fit in order to build the best full roster.
A key difference this year is the Premier Level free-agency draft will not be broken into two parts, so each team will draft their open roster spots until every team has a full roster of 6 players. In 2025, every team filled their four "starter" spots before any team could add a fifth or sixth player.
Only UPA-signed players are eligible to compete in Major League Pickleball.
Lineup changes
- Teams may set a starting lineup for a match that utilizes more than four players as long as it is part of the lineup submission (for example, teams may use a different male player for men’s doubles and mixed doubles).
- If necessary, DreamBreaker lineups will be determined by teams following the second mixed game, and teams may choose any four players from their roster -- two men and two women -- regardless of any substitutions used during doubles. League officials said they made this change after receiving feedback from teams that wanted to utilize their complete roster within a single match, should they choose.
Regular season events & standings points
- Regular season event formats will feature 10 total teams, split into two groups of five, playing a round robin Thursday to Saturday with the top four teams in each group advancing to Sunday.
- Group standings will be determined by standings points earned during group play, with each match worth a total of three points (regulation win = 3; DreamBreaker win = 2; DreamBreaker loss = 1; regulation loss = 0). In order to account for tiebreaker scenarios, all matches will include a fourth game, even if a team is up 3-0.
- The same seeded team in each group will play each other on Sunday (Group A #1 vs. Group B #1, etc.), with event standings points on the line.
- In a nod to F1, standings points for each event will be 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-1-1, based on final results (the winner of the #1 vs. #1 match will receive 25 event standings points with the loser earning 18 points, etc.)
- League officials said this change is to create more excitement and have more consistency in the number of teams at events and the events played by teams at various points in the season. This move builds towards an event finale day with more on the line, allowing the league to market and air its best content at the event’s concluding day.
- Standings points will be earned based on overall performance at each event, NOT from each match.
Waivers
- Premier Level teams will be allowed to participate in one waiver wire period to swap out up to one of their players ONLY for one UPA-signed, MLP non-rostered player during the 2026 season on July 1, following regular season event No. 6, which ends June 28.
- Teams will no longer be allowed to claim another team’s rostered player(s).
Playoffs
- Playoffs will expand to three weeks and 12 teams for 2026. Find the full 2026 schedule of events here.
Key preseason dates (expected)
Jan. 28-Feb. 15: Trade window No. 1
Feb. 15: Keeper deadline
Feb. 27: Premier Level free-agency draft
March 2-July 15: Trade window No. 2
More information on the Challenger Level structure will be announced at a later date.
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