60 NCAA programs put players on a PLL roster this summer. A breakdown of which programs send the most players pro, and the ones that might surprise you

Each week, 21 players are named to the gameday roster for each Premier Lacrosse League club. Of these players, 19 suit up for their team, while two are held on the Protected Roster, ready to be activated in case of injury and to prevent them from being claimed by other teams. That means in a given week, up to 168 players are rostered. These players can come from all over the lacrosse landscape. In 2026, players from 60 NCAA programs (plus MCLA Florida) were rostered in the PLL.  That includes every DI conference, as well as nine different D2 and D3 programs. 

For the purposes of this exercise, each player counts for each school they attended. In an era when players frequently take advantage of the portal or pursue a graduate degree, a lot of players play for more than one school in their career. Not just the school they were at when they were drafted or their college career ended. To suggest, for example, Josh Yago is only a Notre Dame alum after he played four years for Air Force would be unfair to his undergrad achievements. If you were to ask Yago, or the coaches at those schools, where Josh Yago played college lacrosse, they'd tell you Air Force and Notre Dame. So when I count programs represented, Michael Sowers counts for Princeton and Duke. TD Ierlan counts for Albany, Yale, and Denver, and so on.

Maryland leads the way again

For as long as I’ve been doing this, the Terps have been packing pro rosters. In 2026, Maryland put 14.3 players on rosters on a weekly average. It blows the competition away. They are the only college program to average double digits this year. They had the single highest week in the league too, rostering an incredible 19 alums in week one of the PLL season. There were more than 40 programs who didn’t roster an alum 19 times, net, across the entire season. 

I once talked to a former high level college coach who had spent time in the pro ranks about identifying college talent that’s pro ready. He said on draft day, when in doubt, draft a John Tillman coached midfielder. I think it’s safe to expand that and say a Maryland defender too. The Terps are a factory for players who play smart, efficient, fundamentally sound lacrosse, and can do multiple things well. Players tend to wash out of the PLL because they’re too specialized, meaning they have one skill that do at a world class level but are just ok, or at least not quite pro level, at everything else. Their game can’t adapt to play multiple roles in the pros. Or because they’re inefficient. Maryland does not produce players that fall into either bucket. 

The next tier

Maryland was the only program to average double digits, but there were other schools that hit double digits in a given week a few times. Duke, Notre Dame, Princeton, and Rutgers each placed double digit alums on a roster in at least one week this year, and they round out the top five, in that order, for most players in the league. Duke and Notre Dame averaged 9.5 alums rostered per week, Princeton was just below them at 8.4, followed by Rutgers at 7.5. Right behind that group is Syracuse, Denver, and UVA, all just above six alums per week on rosters. Syracuse jumped up significantly year over year thanks to seeing five players drafted in 2026. They went up 1.5 players per week on average from a year ago, moving from 13th most to 6th most.

Princeton, notably, is the only school that has at least one former player rostered for each PLL club. Maryland, UVA, and Duke came close with a player on seven of the eight teams, but only the Tigers swept the board. The Tigers also have two players in the top five in the PLL in scoring. Michael Sowers leads the league with 51 points, Coulter Mackesy is 4th with 37 points.

The schools that might surprise you

As you would expect the ACC, the Big Ten, and Ivy League top the charts. But a few other schools have alum counts that might surprise you. Either because they’re higher, or lower, than expected.

Bellarmine - There were 25 schools that averaged multiple, meaning two or more, alums rostered per week in the PLL. One of them was Bellarmine. By seasons’ end, there were three routinely rostered players from Bellarmine, including two of the league’s eight starting goalies. Dillon Ward and JC Higginbotham both had excellent seasons, while Jon Robbins was a regular 19 man player for the Atlas when healthy. Bellarmine averaged 2.4 alums per week, more than traditional powers like Hopkins, Towson, UMass, or Michigan.

Hopkins - Of the bluest of blue blood programs, Johns Hopkins has produced countless All Americans, won nine NCAA championships along with 35 national titles before the NCAA era, and is a mainstay in the top 20 of all the college polls. This year, however, they averaged just 1.8 alums rostered per week. They had a week with zero players rostered in the PLL, most weeks it was two. Last year the number was 2.9 alums per week, so the Jays have dropped year over year. The current Hopkins roster has some interesting PLL prospects, particularly on the defensive side of the ball, so this number could rise in the next few years. 

St John’s - Not exactly a blue blood, but the pros that come from Queens stand out. Kieran McArdle has had a long and distinguished career; he could have retired by now and already is a Hall of Fame level player. In past years, McArdle is the guy who has me putting a one in the St John’s part of the tracker each week. This year, Brian Kelly joined the mix. The Cannons started Kelly at attack for almost every game this year. In the beginning it was a shock; they removed MVP finalist Asher Nolting from the lineup in favor of Kelly. As the year went on, Kelly and the Cannons let everyone know that Boston made the right move. The Johnnies averaged 1.7 alums per week as a result, about as many as Harvard.

Albany - A true pro factory. There were 11 schools in the country that averaged 5+ alums rostered per week. Albany is one of them, flanked by those powerhouses in the ACC, Big Ten, and Ivy. Albany rosters more players than top programs like Cornell, Georgetown, and North Carolina. The Danes number is high because it’s clear how many of their alums see lacrosse as part of their long term career plan. Two league pros like Connor Fields and Blaze Riorden have been part of the pro lacrosse world for nearly a decade. Graydon Hogg, Jake Piseno, and Silas Richmond are just kicking off their careers as pros in the NLL and PLL. Troy Reh is a perennial all pro who is also a fixture in the coaching world, serving as the DC at LIU. 

North Carolina - The Heels roster 4.8 pros per week. Very respectable, good enough to be ranked 12th among all programs. However, it might be fair to wonder why that number isn’t higher. UNC routinely brings in stacked recruiting classes, chock full of four and five star talent. From 2013 through 2024, UNC averaged eight top 100 recruits per year, more than any other school in America. Yet that isn’t translating to routinely rostering pros in the PLL. Only six Tar Heels have been drafted since the PLL launched. This is a good place to mention some unique context for this exercise. While pro lacrosse wages have grown significantly since the PLL launched, a pro lacrosse career still can’t really compete with the compensation available in a high-powered career in finance. Plenty of lacrosse players attend elite universities, like UNC, both to play lacrosse and to gain access to a prestigious degree (undergrad or graduate) and the network that comes with it to jumpstart a career outside of the sport. Their personal goals might not include pro lacrosse long term, if at all. UNC alums Chris Gray and Will Bowen, both elite lacrosse talents and all pro level players, had short careers. Gray played three seasons, Bowen just two, before retiring to pursue careers outside of pro lacrosse. 

Richmond - Their ascension in college lacrosse is well documented. They made it to the top of the polls this past season, were a trendy final four pick for a while, and continue to make waves as they muscle their way in with the blue bloods. The time to buy low on Richmond was years ago. That era is gone. The Spiders have arrived. Richmond’s ascension is happening in parallel in the pros, the sign of coaching that is great at developing players. In 2025, Richmond averaged 1.5 players per week on PLL rosters. They never had more than two alums rostered in a week. This year in 2026, that number ballooned to 4.3 per week. Nearly three more pros per week from the Spiders. In Denver they rostered seven alums. That number should continue to grow, as Richmond’s returning roster has more PLL level talent, and Coach Dan Chemotti has shown he can send impact players to the pro ranks. 

The leaders, by conference:

ACC - Duke and Notre Dame (tied at 9.5 players per week)

America East - Albany (5.4 players per week)

ASUN - Bellarmine (2.4 players per week)

A-10 - Richmond (4.3 players per week)

Big East - Denver (6.3 players per week)

Big Ten - Maryland (14.3 players per week)

CAA - Towson (1.7 players per week)

Ivy League - Princeton (8.4 players per week)

MAAC - Marist (1 player per week)

Patriot League - Army (3.8 players per week)

NEC - LIU (1.5 players per week, both DII and DI counted together)

DII - Adelphi (0.6 players per week)

DIII - Ithaca and York (tied at 0.8 players per week)

If you’re wondering how a school could have less than one player per week, it’s because of either bye weeks or healthy scratches. If Kyle Lewis isn’t in the lineup for the Waterdogs, of if the Dogs are on a bye that week, it means no Adelphi players were rostered in the league and it goes into the sheet as a zero.

Here’s all the data in a table for you. If you're wondering about big dips for a school from week to week, it's likely because of bye weeks, as there were weeks with multiple teams on a bye this year. If a school has all zeroes, it's because at some point in the past few years they rostered a player so they get added to the list, but they didn't roster anyone this season.