AFBL Rule Changes for 2025 and Beyond
Commissioner's Office - November 15, 2024
It has been a busy offseason during the 2024 Winter Meetings held in the AFBL Complex in the Bahamas for the GMs of AFBL. The league office had several topics and ideas for the league to discuss and vote on several of which have been an ongoing discussion for several seasons now.
The first change will be with the playoff format for the Wildcard Series and the League Championship Series which are both best-of-7 series. The previous format was a 2-3-2 setup and the approved change will move that to a 2-2-1-1-1 setup to allow the team with the best record to not be at a disadvantage in terms of Home Field Advantage which teams battle for all regular season long for. The Federation Cup Series will stay with its current format of 2-2-2-2-1 in the best-of-9 series.
The second change will be with the age limits of the minor league levels. The previous rules had age limits in the Confederation League (A) at 30 years old and the Liberty League (R) at 24 years old. The change will be...
Explorer League (AAA) - no age limit
Union League (AA) - 30
Confederation League (A) - 27
Liberty League (R) - 24
The biggest change will be the approval of the Designated Hitter in both leagues after multiple years of discussion in the Winter Meetings and testing of implementation by the league office during Spring Training and the All-Star Game. Currently it is being discussed and decided on whether for immediate implementation in 2025 or waiting a season before implementing in 2026. A final decision will be made in the next day or two.
AFBL is currently working with High Schools across the USA and Canada on increasing the number of feeder league schools in the HS league over the next few seasons starting in 2025 so stay tuned for more details.
Expansion from 20 to 24 was rejected for the short-term by the GMs and will be tabled for the time being. Any expansion likely would not occur until 2035 at the earliest.
