What Has to Happen Next for Flag Football to Become an NCAA Sport

Flag football has cleared another step to becoming an officially sanctioned NCAA varsity sport.

On Wednesday, the NCAA’s committee on women’s athletics voted in support of giving flag football a key designation that would move it one step closer to official college sports.

The committee voted to recommend that the NCAA’s three divisions place flag football in the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program, which has converted rowing, ice hockey, water polo, bowling, beach volleyball, and wrestling into varsity women’s sports since its inception in 1994.

So what does flag football need to become a championship-level sport?

First, the recommendation will need a green light from other committees through the NCAA’s approval process to put flag football in the emerging sports program. Then, at least 40 schools need to sponsor flag football at the varsity level, meeting NCAA minimum requirements for the number of contests and participation. Each of the three divisions will be able to sponsor legislation to raise flag football to the highest level.

Five sports are in the emerging sports program: acrobatics and tumbling, equestrian (Division I and Division II), rugby, stunt, and triathlon. Some teams are allowed to offer varying scholarships in this transitional phase. In November, the NCAA said acrobatics and tumbling, triathlon, and stunt are getting close to championship consideration.

The NCAA said at least 65 schools have women’s flag football at the club or varsity level this year, and a small number of NAIA schools also have teams buoyed by an NFL partnership that was first announced in 2020. The NFL even ran commercials promoting the sport at the girls high school level during the Super Bowl.

The sport’s rapid growth is building toward 2028, when flag football will make its Olympic debut in Los Angeles. Both men and women will compete. While the U.S. has a clear advantage against other countries with its men’s team, the Olympic pipeline on the women’s side has far fewer athletes to choose from. Other countries where rugby is more popular for women could pose a threat to the U.S. women’s team on their own turf.

Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts has appeared in NFL promotional material hyping up the L.A. Games. Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said in the lead-up to the Super Bowl last week that he could see men’s and women’s flag football teams stemming from NFL franchises.

“I certainly could envision on both the men’s and women’s side, if you wanted to sort of think into the future, every NFL team has their own men’s and women’s flag team that perhaps plays in the offseason and uses some of the branding of the parent team,” Hunt said.