Is women's flag football poised to be an NCAA Emerging Sport?
Will it matter that power conference schools are not adding it?
Nearly one year ago to the day I wrote that women’s flag football was having a moment at the intercollegiate level. That momentum has not slowed. The Olympics, the NFL, Title IX, and increased campus enrollment are potential reasons for flag football’s ascendency.
In February 2025, the NCAA Commission on Women’s Athletics recommended that each Division draft legislation to add flag football as an Emerging Sport for Women (it is not currently listed on the NCAA site). It is entirely possible the NCAA approves that this week at its convention.
Last month, the NFL provided that plan a huge endorsement when it announced a $32 million investment in a professional flag football league. That announcement followed the “groundbreaking” $1 million grant to create a New York Jets partnership with the East Coast Athletic Conference (ECAC) on the “largest women’s collegiate women’s flag football league in the nation.”
We seem to have a full-blown movement. Or do we?
Without a doubt, universities have been falling all over themselves to announce new programs and the Spring 2026 semester has the potential to be monumental in the development and growth of the sport. However, the meteoric rise of women’s flag football can be examined from multiple lenses, and questions should be asked about what is really driving the growth.
The extremely useful website collegiateflagfootball.com painstakingly details the landscape of women’s flag football programs across all divisions and all levels, varsity and club. It follows the movement of conference affiliations, tournaments, and a ton more. I don’t know Matthew Dixon, the writer of CFF, but I commend him on this undertaking.
Seriously, his website includes maps and program links. It is really well done. For nearly six years I have attempted to keep up with additions/discontinuances of college sport across all divisions and it is a lot of work.
Using Dixon’s webpage, I observed the following through January 10, 2026:
I chose to highlight the breakdown of varsity v. club teams because I think it tells us a lot. First, let’s understand the difference between varsity and club sports. At its most basic level, varsity sports are sponsored and funded by the university through scholarships, uniforms, coaches, travel, etc. Club sports are primarily participant funded, meaning club athletes offset the cost of coaches, travel, etc. through a participant fee, similar to the travel sport industry for high school athletes. Many club teams use university logos and facilities, so there is some support and sponsorship by the university.
While schools from the SEC, Big Ten, ACC, and even the Ivy League have, according to Dixon’s research, women’s flag football teams, only seven - Alabama State, Long Island, Mercyhurst, Mississippi Valley State, Mount St. Mary’s, North Alabama, and Texas at Arlington - are sponsoring varsity Division I programs. Interestingly, Mount St. Mary’s and UT-Arlington do not also sponsor men’s football.
Mount St. Mary’s was direct in its explanation for why it added the sport. It was an enrollment play. And for a lot of schools that have added flag, that might be the case. Lewis University (NCAA Division II) athletic director John Ashaolu acknowledged as much, while also suggesting that was not the sole motivation for his school adding it. Ashaolu noted Lewis will be providing scholarships right away in order to be competitive. Learfield Directors Cup standings matter.
Given the majority of schools adding varsity women’s flag football teams are small, enrollment-driven institutions, it is important to consider the challenges around distribution and competition that potentially await the new sport.
We know broadcast exposure is critical to generating interest. Division II and Division III don’t have the same mega deals or networks that Division I does. In fact, most DII or DIII broadcasts are in-house streaming operations or contracts with FloCollege for a subscription-based distribution system. With no schools from the Big Ten, SEC, or ACC (conferences with their own networks) committing to a varsity women’s flag football team, exposure could be a challenge.
The few Division I women’s flag football varsity programs will compete against Division II and Division III institutions. This is not inherently bad. Smaller schools regularly competed against larger schools up to the NCAA Divisional split in the early 1970s. But that was before college sports became highly commercialized. It would stand to reason today’s Division I schools have a distinct recruiting advantage because of their elaborate facilities, staffing resources, and apparel contracts.
Consider NCAA women’s wrestling. Dozens of programs have been added at the same type of small, enrollment-driven institutions that are adding women’s flag football. I wrote about this three years ago at Athletic Director U. At that time, the University of Iowa was the sole new Division I program added since the pandemic. Since Iowa announced it would add the sport in September 2021 (as part of a settlement around Title IX), Division I universities have not exactly lined up to add the sport. By my count, only Delaware State, Lehigh, and Kent State have added it since.
Iowa, a Big Ten school and men’s wrestling power, has dominated women’s wrestling, winning every dual meet since its debut until Division III North Central College upset the top-ranked Hawkeyes this past weekend at the National Duals. Iowa is now 43-1 in dual meets since 2023-24. Of the Top 25 ranked women’s wrestling teams in the most recent NWCA poll, only four are Division I institutions (Iowa, Presbyterian, Lehigh, and Lindenwood).
Division I Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland will begin flag football this spring, competing in the aforementioned Jets ECAC Flag Football League that received $1 million from the New York Jets along with fellow Division I programs Long Island University and Mercyhurst University. The rest of the 15-team league comprises Division II varsity, Division III varsity, and Division I club teams, creating parallels with women’s wrestling.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and the NCAA love to tout how many Olympians participated in college sports which are often viewed as a feeder system. Historically those athletes compete at Division I schools which have the coaching, facilities, and resources to develop talent. Given the high profile involvement of the NFL and the opportunity to create future Olympic talent, it is curious that no power conference schools have added women’s flag football. But, according to my records, no power conference school has added any new sport since Florida State announced women’s lacrosse in October 2023.
In some ways, this feels like the beginning of college women’s basketball. One of the first true powers in that sport was Immaculata College, now Immaculata University, winner of three championships in the early 1970s. Currently, the best women’s flag football team hails from Ottawa University in Kansas, five-time NAIA champions.
I look forward to watching women’s flag football (if any games are online) and I sincerely hope women’s flag football is successful. But until the power conferences begin adding varsity women’s flag football programs in droves, it seems prudent to manage expectations regarding the growth of the sport and its impact on society.