New MLP Rules for 2026: Full Roster Usage, Event Winners, & Expanded Playoffs

Major League Pickleball (MLP) has announced updates to its Competition Structure for the 2026 season. Big changes are happening for 2026, including event winners, lineup changes, and more.

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Top Changes for the 2026 MLP Season

Different players can play within the same match

You already know I love this change - we don't need to wait for Tice's Take. I have been asking for it since team rosters expanded to six at the Premier Level.

Here are the details:

• Each team has six players who can all play in a match, if the team chooses
• Teams are still setting doubles lineups the night before a match
• There are no more "subs" and "starters." By the way, no more stealing players, either – that rule has gone away (big win) - If you don't know what I am talking about here, check out the article I wrote last year about this:

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I will use a real life example from 2025 to illustrate how 2026 could look: The New Jersey 5s.

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If the 5s roster just magically carried over to 2026, this lineup is possible in 2026:

• Women's doubles - Anna Leigh Waters and Mari Humberg
• Men's doubles - Will Howells and Zane Navratil
• Mixed 1 - Anna Leigh Waters and Will Howells
• Mixed 2 - Noe Khlif and Meghan Dizon
• Dreambreaker - Will Howells, Noe Khlif, Anna Leigh Waters, Meghan Dizon

In 2025, the above scenario involving all six players from one team playing in a game was not allowed. In 2026, it's all good.

Lastly, it should be noted that the teams will submit Dreambreaker lineups directly after the last doubles game. This is a big change from last year, as they needed to be submitted the night before.

Tice's Take: This is an amazing change for me because it adds more strategy. Certain teams will probably pick two players who are great at doubles and add a singles specialist. Other teams may have three players of the same gender that are good at doubles with two being good at singles. Figuring out lineups will be that much more difficult. Because of this, certain players value either drops or jumps up, depending on skills. These are all things that GMs and front office staff are going to have to take into account during roster construction. 10/10 change.

Event winners are back

Each of the nine regular season events will have 10 teams competing, with an event winner crowned on Sunday.

How it Works:

• There will be two groups of five teams at each of the nine regular season events.
• Teams will play every other team in their group once, for a total of four group play matches each event.
• Based on the four group play matches, teams will be seeded 1-5 and will play the other group's same number on Sunday (except for the 5 seeds - we won't be forced to watch those).

In order to account for tiebreakers, matches will always complete four games, even if a team has won the match 3-0 already.

Tice's Take: This is a huge win for MLP. Many fans and pundits wanted each event to mean a little more. MLP had lost that "every weekend counts" edge a bit when there was no cumulative winner of each event. That has been fixed and this means there will always be four competitive matches on Sunday, with the two #1 seeds from that event squaring off in the prime-time slot. 10/10 change.

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The points system has been revamped

For two years, the regular season points system have stayed the same. In 2026, the points system for regular season standings has been completely revamped.

In the past, each regular season win in regulation was worth three standings points. A Dreambreaker win was worth two points. A Dreambreaker loss was worth one point. A regulation loss was worth zero points.

For 2026, those numbers are still being used in matches Thursday through Saturday, to determine seeding for Sunday.

However, regular season standings points are now determined by overall placement in each event.

For example, if a team finished their five events in 3rd, 5th, 8th, 2nd, and 7th, they would have 53 standings points at the end of the regular season.

This is extremely similar to how Formula 1 standings points work from event to event. Moving toward this makes a ton of sense.

Tice's Take: This was the only way to keep regular season standings points fair for all parties while also adding individual event winners. I like that teams are rewarded for winning, earning seven more points than the second place team. The only thing I maybe would have changed is the 9th and 10th teams - why give them any points? They probably went 0-4. Or, fully follow the F1 formula, and give the 9th team two points. That is just me nitpicking, though. Overall, I love this structure. 9.5/10 change.

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The playoffs will include 12 teams and are expanding to three weekends

The playoffs will now include 12 of the 18 Premier Level teams. Last year included the top 10 teams, but with the two team expansion of Premier Level, MLP decided to add two playoff teams.

Last year, 10 of the 16 Premier Level teams made the playoffs (63% of teams). This year, since Las Vegas (promotion from Challenger) and Palm Beach (expansion team directly into Premier) are new to the Premier Level, the 12 playoff teams means that 67% of teams will make the playoffs.

The other big playoff change is the addition of Dallas in the first round. Last year there were only two rounds of MLP playoffs - San Diego and then the Finals in New York City.

This year, Dallas will host the first round of the playoffs, August 6-9. Teams seeded 5-12 in the playoffs will play in this event with the best two out of three series. Just like last year, the 5 seed will have its choice of opponent from the 9-12 seeds. The 6 seed will then have their choice from the remaining 9-12 seeds, and so forth.

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The next weekend (August 13 - 16), the Barnes Tennis Center will again host the second round of the playoffs. The four winners from the first round will be reseeded as 5-8, according to their regular season standings. The 1 seed will get to choose their opponent in a best two out of three series from the new 5-8 seeds.

From there, the four semifinalist teams will have 11 days of recovery, skipping one weekend. The final round of the playoffs will take place at City Pickle at Wollman Park in New York City, August 28-30. The top seed gets to choose their opponent from the 3 or 4 seed. The 2 seed gets the other opponent. The winners will battle it out for the championships. All of these series are best two out of three.

Tice's Take: The expansion to 12 teams makes sense to me. The only reason I dislike it slightly is that it takes away a bit of the value of being the 1 or 2 seed. Last year, with 10 teams in the playoffs, the top 2 seeds got an extra bye and that is now gone. They still get to choose their opponents, which is a big advantage, so the top seed is still very important.

As for the schedule change, I love it. I think this allows for a better rest period for the teams that make it to New York. I also think making the first round best two of three adds a little bit more intrigue. 8.5/10 change.

Important dates for the 2026 Season

Other important updates

The Draft: The draft is remaining largely the same. Only UPA signed players are eligible to play in MLP. There will be a dynamic bidding process and all the money made from the draft goes directly to the league. The biggest difference this year is that there is just one draft - not every team needs to get to four players before the other teams can bid on their fifth and sixth player. There is no cap on draft dollars or overall salary cap for teams.

Waivers: As previously mentioned, there is no more "stealing" of players from other rosters. There will only be one waiver period, and that will take place on Wednesday, July 1. Only UPA signed players who are not also on MLP rosters are eligible to be picked up in waivers.

Challenger Level: This is the last year MLP is planning to have the Challenger Level. There are some details to be worked out with the five Challenger teams and how that will logistically work - more details to come.

There will surely be more new information over the next month or so - stay tuned to The Dink for all the breaking news.