The 2020 PBA League Draft looms large today as it marks a key deadline toward setting up this year’s league draft pool.

Players hoping to become eligible for the 2020 PBA League Draft have only the qualifying rounds of the PBA World Series of Bowling XI to compile points, but Thursday, March 5, is the deadline for the eight existing PBA League managers to decide which of their 2019 rostered players they want to “protect” for 2020. Each manager can retain up to three players from last season’s roster.

The players not protected will be returned to the PBAL draft pool. Assuming each team returns two players to the draft, that will mean 16 spots available to join teams this year. And thanks to the expansion of the PBA League from eight to 10 teams, another 10 players will get a chance to participate when the league’s Elias Cup competition returns to Bayside Bowl in Portland, Maine, July 20-23.

After Thursday’s protected players are announced, the draft picture will be a lot clearer. The PBAL Draft will take place on Sunday, March 15 at 4:30 p.m. Eastern/1:30 p.m. Pacific at South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas, the host center for PBA World Series of Bowling XI. The list of eligible players will be published on March 13. Here are the 2019 teams and rosters:

2019 PBA League Final Standings (with team rosters):

1, Portland Lumberjacks (manager Tim Mack; rostered players are Ryan Ciminelli, Wes Malott, Kyle Troup, Kris Prather, Mitch Hupé).

2, L.A. X (manager Andrew Cain; rostered players are Jason Belmonte, Stuart Williams, Jakob Butturff, Dick Allen, Anthony Lavery-Spahr).

3, Dallas Strikers (player-manager is Norm Duke; rostered players are Tommy Jones, Bill O’Neill, Andrew Anderson, Brad Miller).

4, NYC KingPins (manager is Carolyn Dorin-Ballard; rostered players are Pete Weber, Marshall Kent, BJ Moore, Kyle Sherman, Darren Tang).

5, Silver Lake Atom Splitters (manager is Mark Baker; rostered players are Chris Barnes, Jesper Svensson, Tom Daugherty, DJ Archer, AJ Johnson).

6, Motown Muscle (manager is Del Ballard Jr.; rostered players are EJ Tackett, Anthony Simonsen, Josh Blanchard, AJ Chapman, Mykel Holliman).

7, Brooklyn Styles (manager is Johnny Petraglia; rostered players are Walter Ray Williams Jr., Sean Rash, Rhino Page, Andres Gomez, Brad Angelo).

8, Philadelphia Hitmen (manager is Jason Couch; rostered players are Dom Barrett, Tom Smallwood, Matt Sanders, Patrick Girard, x-Shawn Maldonado, x-Jake Peters (Peters replaced Maldonado due to injury).