The NCAA programs that led the PLL in 2026.

Tracking the path of college players to the pro ranks is a passion project of mine. I love seeing who is on the PLL rosters every week, where they went to school, and tracking the programs that send players to the pro outdoor ranks consistently. Some schools surprise you, either with more or less pros than expected, some are consistently great, some fluctuate wildly year to year. It’s something fans, and the schools themselves, enjoy and engage with. I am particular about the methodology used for this because, in an era of transfer portals and grad year eligibility and all that, a lot of athletes compete for multiple schools in their college career. That’s why when I was sent this graphic published on social media, I took issue with it. 

It’s easy to see why I would have a problem with it. I noted that Princeton is credited with only 94 points, despite the fact that in 2026 Michael Sowers, Chad Palumbo, and Coulter Mackesy had 115 points between them. The author noted that this only credited points to the school that the PLL site shows the player graduating from. So Sowers would only count for Duke. 

This is a significant flaw. It heavily biases this data against Ivy League schools, Patriot League schools, or any other program that doesn’t take grad transfers or 5th year players. Go ahead and ask Michael Sowers if he went to Princeton. Or ask Josh Yago if he went to Air Force. They’ll say yes. As such, they should count for all schools attended. The author invited me to run the analysis myself using my method when I took issue with the data. So I did. 

I only counted players who appeared in at least one PLL regular season game in 2026, and the production is only regular season. Players like Sowers are counted for Princeton and Duke, Yago for Air Force and Notre Dame, TD Ierlan for Albany, Yale, and Denver, and so forth. 

The overall points leader is actually Princeton with 172, then Notre Dame with 151, Duke at 141, Maryland at 126, and Penn State at 93 rounds out the top five. Cornell climbs a bit to 91 points, just outside the top five, courtesy of picking up some points from players like Jon Donville who took a fifth year at Maryland. But why stop at points? There’s plenty of ways for schools to distinguish themselves outside of scoring. 

Here are the schools that really excelled this year in different facets of the game. 

Pound for Pound U - St John’s

St John’s rostered two players in the PLL regular season. Those two, Brian Kelly and Kieran McArdle, registered 54 points between them. Nobody else with multiple players rostered comes even close to 27 points per player. The next closest is Cornell at 15. This data is a little dirty, since some schools may roster multiple defenders, goalies, faceoff men, or other positions less likely to produce points and bring down the schools average. But the dynamic duo of Johnnies is still worth shouting out for their incredibly productive year. The other Ivy schools joined the Big Red near the top of the list for this. Harvard got 59 points from just four players, Princeton got 172 points from 12 players, and Brown got 35 points from just three players. 

Assist U - Princeton

Speaking of that gaudy 172 points, the Tigers were elite at throwing helpers this year. Sowers in the data cohort certainly helps. But the Tigers led overall with 75 assists this year, good for 6.25 per player rostered. The Tigers threw 1593 passes this year, that’s about 132 per player, and that’s on about 2000 touches. So roughly 75% of Princeton player touches became passes, and that turned into the league lead in assists. 

Shots on Net U - North Carolina

The Heels hit the net plenty this year. They put 96 shots on cage, that’s about 72% of all the shots they took hitting the goal. They also put about 71% of their two point shots on net. What makes this is even more insane is how much of it is coming from one player. The Heels had nine alums play in a PLL game this year. That includes three SSDMs (four if you include Ty English), two poles, and a faceoff man. It also includes Marcus Holman. He was responsible for 81 of Carolina’s 133 shots, 41 of Carolina’s 62 points, 28 of 43 total goals, the list goes on. Holman was letting it rip from all over the field this year, all ranges, in all ways, showing the world that age should not remove his name from “best shooter ever” conversations.

Two Pointer U - Notre Dame

The Irish know where that arc is and stay behind it. They led the league in two pointers taken overall with 55, that’s 14 more than the next closest team. They had nearly four two pointers taken per player rostered. They led the league in two pointers on goal with 36, that’s 11 more than the next closest. They led the league overall in two pointers hit. A lot of this comes from Bryan Costabile, who led the league in two pointers this year. But Chris Kavanagh let it fly from range plenty, his brother Pat hit a two (and just hit another in the playoffs).  North Carolina is hot on their heels (pun not intended) and could come for the crown next year. Or any year that Marcus Holman takes the field. 

Team Offense U - Penn State

Those Penn Staters can sling it, and they do plenty of work without the ball in their stick. The Nittany Lions had seven players in the data set, and scored 43 assisted goals this year. Those seven players include three defenders and a goalie, so the three offensive players (Mac O’Keefe, Matt Traynor, TJ Malone) were exceptional. All the other programs even in the ballpark of 43 assisted goals were around 2-3 assisted goals per player. Penn State was over six per player, and that skews low thanks to all the defensive talent. The overall leader in assisted goal was Maryland, at an average of about 2.5 per player rostered. 

Clear Out U - Cornell

The Big Red can take it to the rack. They had 41 unassisted goals this year, an average of just under seven per player rostered this year. That’s the best mark among teams with more than two rostered players. Considering Rob Pannell and CJ Kirst take the field every week, that's no big surprise. The overall lead in unassisted goals was Princeton with 54 at an average of 4.5 per player rostered. 

Caused Turnover U - Penn

The Quakers rostered five players this year and really none of them play offense. James Shipley was even listed as an SSDM. But when the player cohort includes Piper Bond, Brendan Lavelle, and BJ Farrare, you’re going to see some CT numbers. Penn had 6.6 CTs per player, and that’s with Shipley and Emmet Carroll dropping the average a bit. It’s interesting just how heavily skewed towards the defense Penn is. They aren’t even top 20 in the league in touches. It’s just a crew that doesn’t touch the ball until they take it from you. That’s a fun reputation to have in my opinion. 

Win it Back U(s)

When going through the turnover numbers, I noticed just how few schools with multiple rostered players were causing more turnovers then they were committing. Again, this is partially a function of position breakdowns, i.e Michael Sowers will commit a lot more turnovers than he causes. Teams that skew offensive will always be on that side of things vs schools that roster more defenders. 

Penn was elite at this, causing more than two turnovers for each one they committed. Vermont rostered four players and was at 2.5 CTs per TO committed. Marquette was also excellent at this with a 2:1 ratio. Ohio State rostered nine players this year and was on the plus side of CTs vs TOs, which is extremely impressive. Nobody else on the plus side rostered more than five. 

Pick It Up and Move It U - Albany

The Danes get the ball off the carpet like crazy. Granted, having TD Ierlan in your player cohort will help with this. But they also have exceptional ground ball players like Troy Reh, Jake Piseno, and Connor Fields too. Albany averaged almost 37 GBs per player rostered this year, and had the fourth most GBs in the league. The three teams in front of them had at least four more players rostered than Albany. Maryland literally had three times as many players (21 for Maryland, seven for Albany) and had 12 more groundballs in total. Not only do they crush ground balls, they are all over the passing stats. They’re fourth in the league in passes per player with 141, and fifth overall in passes completed.  Combine it with being top ten in the league in CTs and CTs per player and you get a real nice picture. Albany puts the ball on the ground, wins it, and moves it to a teammate to start the play as well as anyone. 

Want to go through the data yourself and have some fun? It’s right here for you.

Sheet one is the players in the data set, sheet two is that list condensed into just the schools with per player data added, using the methodology outlined above.