Everything We Know About the Upcoming WNBA Expansion Draft

Ladies and gentlemen, the 2026 WNBA season is a-go.

After months of back-and-forth and some extremely late-night marathon negotiating sessions, the WNBA and its players' association have officially ratified a new collective bargaining agreement, and just in time for the 2026 campaign to proceed as planned.

It's a victory for both sides—players won big in terms of revenue share (a huge sticking point in talks), while the league avoided missed revenue as a result of a lockout—but the next few weeks will still be a bit of organized chaos.

Why, you ask? Well, with bargaining in the rearview, there is a lot to get done before the regular season can begin on May 8, including an expansion draft for two new teams—the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo—as well as the annual college draft on April 13.

As for that first to-do, curious parties received lots more information on Wednesday, when the league revealed a few key details.

Here's everything we know about the expansion draft so far:

When will the expansion draft be held?

The league will hold the expansion draft on Friday, April 3, at 3:30 p.m. ET.

Which team will have the first pick?

Whichever team wins a coin toss—the Tempo or the Fire—will choose between either the first pick in the expansion draft or the sixth pick (as opposed to the seventh) in the first round of the college draft on Monday, April 13.

What is the format of the expansion draft?

Across two rounds, Portland and Toronto will select from a pool of players made available by the league's other teams. It will be a snake-draft format, so whoever has the first pick in the first round will have the second pick in the second round. Otherwise, both teams will alternate selections for a maximum of 12 picks.

The expansion teams can select one player from an existing team per round, which means just two players can be drafted from each of the existing teams in total. This is so that one team's roster isn't annihilated while another's is left untouched.

What do you mean by 'unprotected players'?

Ahead of the expansion draft, each of the 13 existing teams must designate up to five players as "protected," thus shielding them from selection by the Fire and the Tempo. (Otherwise, there would be nothing stopping the expansion teams from selecting the very best players from each franchise.)

Any player who isn't tagged as protected is therefore unprotected, and resultingly eligible to be selected in the expansion draft.

What about free agents?

If Portland or Toronto chooses a player that is an upcoming free agent, "the selecting team will receive whatever rights to such player that the existing team would have had if that player was not selected in the Expansion Draft," per the WNBA's release. To note, Tempo and Fire can only select in the draft one player who will be an unrestricted free agent.

The free agency period will be held from April 7 to 18.

How will each team navigate the college draft?

The Fire and Tempo will also have a chance to make selections in the annual draft on April 13. During that event, both teams will alternate picks so that "whichever team holds the sixth pick in the first round will then have the seventh pick in the second round and the sixth pick in the third round," per a WNBA press release. The opposite will be true for the team that holds the seventh pick in the first round.

How can I watch the expansion draft?

Coverage will be provided by ESPN. The event starts at 3:30 p.m. ET on Friday, April 3.