Pro Volleyball Federation announces draft date and details
The PVF will hold its second ever draft event on November 25th.
Thursday afternoon, the Pro Volleyball Federation announced that it will hold the league’s second ever draft event on November 25, 2024. The draft will consist of five rounds, with each team holding the rights to one pick in each round, totaling 40 picks. The first overall selection will go to Indy, the newest PVF team. The PVF press release explained that picks two through four were determined by a lottery held on October 15, while the rest of the first round selections were tied to the outcome of the 2024 postseason.
Two trades from last season will impact the initial draft order — the Atlanta Vibe hold Columbus’ first round pick (second overall) and the Omaha Supernovas hold San Diego’s second round pick (fifteenth overall).
“Moving the draft to November this year allows coaches to potentially have our draftees in camp during the preseason and start to develop a foundation for long-term success,” said coach Tayyiba Haneef-Park. This is an interesting wrinkle, especially as it relates to the NCAA Women’s Volleyball Tournament.
For example, let’s say Arizona State grad students Claire Jeter, Mary Shroll, and Argentina Ung are drafted and decide to play preseason ball with their new clubs because they already have a college degree in hand. These three experienced and talented players are key to ASU’s success. Losing them prior to tournament play could be extremely difficult for the Sun Devils, who have come up short in just two matches to this point.
As a reminder, players are not required to declare for the draft and may choose not to play for the club who drafts them if they have remaining college eligibility. However, there were no obvious cases of a team trying to pry a player away from college in last year’s draft class. It seems unlikely to happen until PVF player salaries make it a worthwhile gamble for the draftee.
The practical effect of drafting from among seniors and grad students is that the expected draft class is a little light on star talent. Famous underclassmen such as Bergen Reilly or Olivia Babcock won’t be drafted because there is no appetite among teams to spend resources on a player who has no serious incentive to leave college early.
Additionally, the PVF will have to contend with League One Volleyball to attract top college talent. LOVB has worked to establish NIL deals with some of the best players the amateur scene has to offer, which could take a bite out of the number of players PVF teams are willing to spend draft picks on as well. It’s my understanding that the majority of last year’s draftees had a handshake agreement in place to sign if drafted, which could be impeded by LOVB’s head start in relationship building with certain players.
Whatever the case may be, draft-day swaps are very much on the table, which makes the current draft landscape just preliminary. Last year, both Magda Jehlarova and Paige Briggs were targeted in trades by teams who did not draft them. A similar situation could easily arise if a team falls head over heels for an Anna DeBeer-type player.