PLL 2026 Season Preview for Colorado Lacrosse Fans

For Boulder County lacrosse families, the Premier Lacrosse League (PLL) is the easiest way to watch the best outdoor players in the world — and in 2026 there are more reasons than ever to follow along from the Front Range. Colorado has its own team in the Denver Outlaws, a Colorado-grown star starring elsewhere in the league, and a tour stop coming to Denver in July. Here is what Boulder fans need to know about the 2026 season.

The Eight Teams and Two-Conference Format

The PLL is the top professional outdoor field lacrosse league in the United States. The 2026 season is its eighth, and the league now runs on a city-based, two-conference model rather than the touring all-star format it used in its early years.

Eight teams are split evenly into two conferences:

• Eastern Conference: Boston Cannons, Maryland Whipsnakes, New York Atlas, Philadelphia Waterdogs
• Western Conference: California Redwoods, Carolina Chaos, Denver Outlaws, Utah Archers

The regular season runs from May 8 through August 16, and the playoffs follow from August 29 through September 20. Most weekends, the league sets up in a single host city and plays a slate of games there — so when the schedule comes to Colorado, fans get several matchups in one trip. You can track results all season on the PLL standings page. For a fuller breakdown of how the league is structured, see our Premier Lacrosse League guide.

The Denver Outlaws: Colorado's Title Contender

The team Boulder County fans will adopt first is the Denver Outlaws. The Outlaws reached the championship game in 2025 as runners-up, and they entered 2026 as one of the favorites to win the whole thing — a rare position for a Colorado pro team in any sport.

The reason is the roster. Denver carries what amounts to a Tewaaraton-caliber core of finishers, led by Brennan O'Neill, Pat Kavanagh, Jared Bernhardt, and Logan Wisnauskas. Those are four of the most dangerous attackers in the league on one depth chart, which is why oddsmakers have spent the season pointing at Denver as a championship pick. For young players in Boulder's club and high school programs, the Outlaws are a useful team to study: watching elite attackers move off-ball, draw slides, and finish under pressure gives a model that translates directly to the field.

Denver competes in a deep Western Conference alongside the California Redwoods, Carolina Chaos, and Utah Archers, so every weekend matters for playoff seeding. Earlier this season we covered a Denver Outlaws comeback win over the Redwoods that showed how the team can flip a game in a single quarter.

The Western Conference Race

For the Outlaws, the path to a title runs straight through the Western Conference, and it is not an easy one. The California Redwoods have been the conference's other heavyweight, and both the Carolina Chaos and Utah Archers are capable of knocking off anyone on a given weekend. Because only the top teams from each conference advance, regular-season seeding carries real weight — a higher seed can mean an easier draw and, in some rounds, the right to be the home team for a playoff weekend.

The postseason itself is compact and high-stakes. After the regular season ends on August 16, the league plays through quarterfinals, semifinals, and a single championship game, with the title decided by September 20 in Harrison, New Jersey. That short runway rewards teams that peak late, which is exactly the kind of momentum Boulder fans will be watching Denver build through July and August. A weekend slump in midseason is survivable; a cold streak in September is not.

Colorado-Grown Talent in the PLL

The PLL is not just something Colorado watches — it is something Colorado produces. The state has quietly become a real pipeline for Division I and professional lacrosse, and the clearest example on a current PLL roster is Asher Nolting.

Nolting grew up in Greenwood Village and starred at Cherry Creek High School, where he was named Colorado's Player of the Year in 2017 before going on to a record-setting career at High Point University. He now plays for the Boston Cannons, where he runs the offense as the team's primary distributor. In 2023 he became the first player in PLL history to record 20 goals and 20 assists in a single season — a Colorado kid rewriting the league record book.

Nolting's path matters for Boulder County families because it shows the route is real: Colorado high school lacrosse to Division I to the pros is a road that local players have actually traveled. For players who want to keep competing after high school without a Division I scholarship, the University of Colorado Buffaloes field a strong MCLA program right here in Boulder, competing in the Rocky Mountain Lacrosse Conference. The MCLA is a different track than the NCAA, but it keeps the game going for committed players and feeds the broader Colorado lacrosse community that the pro game draws from.

When the PLL Comes to Denver

The single best date on the 2026 calendar for Boulder fans is Week 10. From July 24 to 26, the PLL sets up at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium on the University of Denver campus — about 45 minutes south of Boulder, an easy day trip for a Front Range lacrosse family.

A single PLL weekend usually means multiple games at one venue, so a Denver stop is a chance to see several of the league's eight teams in person across a couple of days, rather than just one matchup. For kids who have only watched the pros on television, seeing professional shot speed and field spacing live is genuinely eye-opening — and DU's stadium is an intimate, lacrosse-specific venue where the action is close to the stands. Tickets and exact game times are posted through the PLL schedule as each weekend approaches, so check there before planning the trip.

How to Watch from Boulder County

If you cannot make it to Denver in July, you will not miss a single game. The PLL has one of the best broadcast deals in lacrosse: every 2026 game airs across ESPN platforms. Marquee matchups land on ABC and ESPN, regular-season games run on ESPN networks, and full-game streaming and replays live on ESPN+.

That means a Boulder family with an ESPN+ subscription can follow the Denver Outlaws — and watch Asher Nolting and the Cannons — every weekend from the couch. For players, watching with a purpose is more valuable than watching casually: pick a position your child plays, follow one player at that position for a whole game, and talk afterward about the decisions that player made. It turns a broadcast into a coaching session.

What to Watch the Rest of 2026

With the regular season closing on August 16 and the playoffs running into late September, the back half of the season is where the Outlaws' championship case gets tested. Boulder fans have a clear rooting interest: a deep Denver playoff run, capped by the title game, would be the highest-profile moment Colorado pro lacrosse has had.

Keep an eye on the PLL standings as the Western Conference race tightens, and mark the Denver weekend in late July on the calendar. Between the Outlaws in the summer and the Colorado Mammoth playing indoor lacrosse at Ball Arena all winter, Boulder County lacrosse fans now have a year-round professional game to follow — both of them a short drive down the road.