Tennessee to Welcome New Women’s Pro Softball Team in League Expansion

Prior to debuting in June 2026, the new Professional Softball League (PSL) is already expanding.

Announced on Monday, a team is officially headed to Knoxville in 2027, marking the city’s first-ever pro women’s team. League executive and former Lady Vol, Caylan Arnold Elliott, couldn’t pass up the opportunity to expand on softball’s growing popularity within the area.

BREAKING: Knoxville is getting a professional softball team, marking the first pro women's sports team in the city.

The team will join the Professional Softball League (PSL) as an expansion team in 2027. https://t.co/sB5G1m3AqA pic.twitter.com/7yUrEo7Gtq
— Sam Rothman (@samrothman_) April 6, 2026

“The fanbase is here,” Arnold Elliot told Sam Rothman at WATE News, “You have young girls who need role models to look up to. You’ve got the girls who play at the University of Tennessee, but now this is going to give the professional side of things and give these girls an opportunity to say, ‘Hey, I could play professional softball.’”

With nine Women’s College World Series (WCWS) appearances and two in the last three seasons, Karen Weekly’s Lady Vols program and Rocky Top are consistently on the softball world’s radar.

Ranked No.1 by all four major polls until March 26, the Lady Vols have been all the talk this college season and are working toward another postseason run, if not the program’s first-ever national championship.

Former ace Monica Abbott and current senior Karlyn Pickens have etched their names in Tennessee history books and have made insurmountable impacts on the game as a whole. Pickens was just handed a Golden Ticket from the other professional softball league, Athletes Unlimited Softball League (AUSL), but now the opportunity to stay home has arrived.

The Knoxville team's name and location have not been announced yet, but according to Arnold Elliot, it’s all in the works.

“We’ve got some pretty incredible names that are on the list of who want to be a part of this,” Arnold Elliott told WATE News. “You’ve got a few celebrities, you’ve got some really fun Knoxville ties, and people that you definitely know the names of. We don’t want to give away any spoilers yet, but it’s some big names.”

The PSL officially launched in December, combining seven previously independent softball teams from around the country into one league.

Each team will have a roster of 20 standouts, and play will commence in June, just shortly after the WCWS finishes. The PSL’s full 2026 schedule will be announced at a later date.

Teams To Join the PSL

Atlanta Smoke (Atlanta, Ga.)
Chattanooga Chill (Chattanooga Tenn.)
Florida Breeze (Tampa Bay, Fla.)
Florida Heat (Viera, Fla.)
Flordiba Vibe (Bradenton, Fla.)
KC Diamonds (Kansas City, Mo.)
New York Rise (New York, N.Y.)