Champions Series Pickleball Announces 2026 Player Combine at Pickler Universe

Pickler Universe in Carrollton, TX hosted Champions Series Pickleball's (CSP) 2026 Player Combine, which was scheduled for February 27-March 1, 2026 and appeared on CSP and PickleballTournaments.com listings with a visible "REGISTER NOW" call to action. Champions Series Pickleball identified itself on the event page as "Champions Series Pickleball ('CSP'), formerly National Pickleball League," and positioned the combine as the league's pre-draft showcase.

CSP's player-information copy explicitly targeted older-age competitors, stating, "Pro-level players age 40+, 50+, and 60+ are encouraged to participate as this is the only opportunity to play in front the Team owners and General Managers prior to the League’s draft." The PickleballTournaments.com header labeled the event "2026 COMBINE (40+, 50+, 60+)" and carried the promotional line "Your Pre-Draft Showcase Opportunity for the Champions Series."

The league used the combine announcement to outline a divisional and team expansion. CSP's materials said, "The League is growing from 12 to 16 teams and expanding into four divisions in 2026: Prime (40+), Premier (50+), Masters (60+), and Next Up (any player 50+ not drafted in the Premier or Masters Division)." The site also specified roster flexibility: "Players from the Masters and Next Up Divisions are eligible to serve as substitute players for teams in the Premier Division."

CSP's marketing copy framed the change as a major shift: "A NEW ERA IS HERE" and, in longer form, "Champions Series Pickleball (CSP) is proud to announce a historic expansion for our 2026 season. As the premier professional pickleball league for champion athletes aged 50+, we are creating a new pathway for players of all ages to compete at the highest level." That promotional language appears alongside the divisional listing, which includes a Prime (40+) division, an internal text juxtaposition present in the posted materials.

The posted combine schedule included a complete Friday block: "FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27 10AM-12PM: Open play (optional) 12PM-5PM: Skills assessment and evaluation (required)." Saturday, February 28 and Sunday, March 1 schedule details were truncated on the excerpted pages and not included in the materials provided. The CSP page also referenced assets such as "Asset 1_2x.png" and the "Champions Series Pickleball 2026 Player Combine logo."

Context on the competitive landscape was visible on the PickleballTournaments.com listing, which displayed community metrics including "3.5M Matches played," "19.6k Tournaments hosted," "1.3k Active tournaments," "5.6k Active clubs," and "411 Active leagues," underscoring the broader event platform that listed the CSP combine.

Several logistical and roster details remain absent from the published excerpts: registration fees and deadlines, full Saturday-Sunday combine schedules, draft dates, names of attending team owners and General Managers, the complete list of 16 teams, and whether the combine accepted amateur entrants alongside "Pro-level players." These items were not in the posted player-information pages and will determine how the expansion and the combine affect team building for CSP's expanded 16-team, multi-division season.