Tulsa National is at the center of another eligibility scandal at the Little League World Series. This time, on the baseball side.
Three leagues filed a joint protest against the Oklahoma-based program right before the regional championship.
With less than 10 days until the start of the Little League Baseball World Series, the entire Southwest bracket is up in the air. A disqualification could shake up the entire region.
Little League denied an initial protest against Tulsa National.
Tulsa National has been accused of wrongdoing in each of the last two years. However, the majority of the focus was on its softball program. It was first revealed after a third-place finish in 2025 that Little League officials largely ignored incriminating evidence during a failed cover-up. The exact same issue as last year showed back up in 2026. It ultimately led to a disqualification, which only raised even more questions about Little League’s investigation.
And now, less than 30 days later, Tulsa National is facing similar accusations with its baseball program.
As state champions, Team Oklahoma advanced to the Southwest Regional championship with a 3-2 win over Louisiana on Sunday afternoon in Waco, Texas. However, the game was played amid widespread scrutiny.
Boerne Little League, known as Texas West, filed the initial complaint against Tulsa National earlier in the tournament. Its protest was denied, which allowed Team Oklahoma to continue play. Meanwhile, the organization is accused of retroactively modifying data in the app most often used to track results and statistics. Seems suspicious.
“A GameChanger admin has been deleting and modifying Tulsa National Little League GameChanger data since the original protest filed by Boerne Little League. These actions show an intent to deceive and/or hide the facts of how the season was played and should nullify any GameChanger data as evidence of player participation during the regular season.”
Another protest was filed on Sunday. It involves three of the other six teams at the Southwest Regional.
The Oklahoma baseball program is accused of falsifying eligibility documents.
According to Maren Angus-Coombs of Softball on SI, this secondary protest asks Little League to investigate “whether Tulsa National Little League operated its entire 2026 baseball program in compliance with Little League Regulations, Playing Rules, Operating Policies, Charter Requirements and Player Eligibility Requirements required for International tournament eligibility.” It challenges four potential violations:
- Sibling Participation — Regulation II(a)(1)
- League eligibility
- Pitching more than one game in a day — Regulation VI(k)
- Completing a game — Rule 4.10(c)(2).
The three leagues also accuse Tulsa National Oklahoma District Administrator Mindy Abbott and Tulsa National Little League President of using the Challenger program to falsify player eligibility. Founded in 1989, the Challenger division is Little League’s adaptive baseball program for individuals with physical and intellectual challenges. The protest reads as follows:
“Not only are there multiple sources that have confirmed that Tulsa National Little League did not play a Challenger game this year, there are questions regarding whether the player would even qualify for the Challenger program. Using a special needs program in this manner is so egregious that anyone involved with this should be banned for life from Little League.”
If these allegations are found to be true, the three programs who filed the secondary protest would like Tulsa National to be disqualified. They are asking Little League for an “immediate investigation into the operating policies of Tulsa National Little League to determine whether or not a valid season was conducted, the disqualification of Tulsa National Little League from all 2026 postseason play and disciplinary action against District Administrator Mindy Abbott and Steve Skocik for knowingly falsifying official Little League documentation.”
Little League Vice President Dan Velte told Softball on SI that each individual protest is handled on a “case-by-case” basis. Every protest is reviewed. Action is not taken until “such a time that someone can clearly show there is a violation.”
A timeline for review remains unclear. However, the clock is ticking.
Tulsa National will play for the Southwest Regional title on Tuesday to qualify for the Little League Baseball World Series. The LLWS is set to begin on August 19. If Team Oklahoma is disqualified before Tuesday, the result would defer back to the semifinal. If not, the runner-up could replace Team Oklahoma at the World Series if it is disqualified after the regional tournament.