The chances of the NCAA hosting a tournament and national championship for women’s flag football in 2028 are increasing.
On Thursday, the NCAA Board of Governors approved funding to support a championship and committee for women’s flag football, marking another meaningful step forward for the growing sport. The board also approved an NCAA-wide budget allocation for women’s flag football, moving oversight of the championship budget to Division I — which is consistent with other national championships — beginning with the 2027-28 season.
Put more simply, the money is there for the NCAA to host a national championship for women’s flag football, and it’s likely that fans will see one in spring 2028 ahead of the sport’s debut at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“The Board of Governors is proud to support the continued growth of women’s flag football,” ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, chair of the board, said in a statement. “Establishing funding for a National Collegiate Championship is an important milestone that provides a pathway for future championship competition and reinforces our commitment to fostering additional growth opportunities for women in college sports.”
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Members of the UCLA Bruins women's flag football club team participate in an exhibition during the spring game on May 2 in Pasadena, Calif.
In May, women’s flag football received a formal recommendation to become a championship sport when the NCAA Committee on Access, Opportunity and Impact voted at its spring meeting to recommend Divisions I, II and III sponsor legislation to add a National Collegiate Flag Football Championship. Those proposals will be voted on by member schools in January at the annual NCAA convention.
This past January, flag football was added to the NCAA’s Emerging Sports for Women program. For a sport to graduate from that program and receive championship status, at least 40 schools must sponsor it at a varsity level and meet the sport's minimum competition and participant requirements. The NCAA says the sport met those thresholds required to move forward this spring.
With support from the NFL, women’s flag football has grown rapidly at the college level over the past few years. More than 20 Division I programs — including one at the Power 4 level, Nebraska — have announced their intentions to launch teams at the varsity level by 2028, and many more are playing the sport at the Division II and III levels. Recent Division I programs to announce the addition of women’s flag football teams include Sacramento State and Maryland Eastern Shore. More than 75 schools across the NCAA’s three divisions plan to play women’s flag football in the next academic year and have hired coaches.
In this upcoming academic year, the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference — one of two Division I NCAA conferences that is made up of only historically Black colleges — will be the first at the D1 level to host a conference championship for the sport. The Big South will sponsor a full season and championship for women’s flag football in the 2027-28 season too.
At the Division II and III levels, this has already been accomplished by the Atlantic East and Conference Carolinas. Wingate won the first Conference Carolinas' league championship in women’s flag football this spring, defeating Ferrum College, 32-14. Marymount repeated as the champs of the Atlantic East with a 12-6 win over Eastern.
In lieu of an official NCAA Tournament this past year, the Fiesta Sports Foundation held its own national championship for flag football, inviting seven club teams and one varsity squad. UCF won the Fiesta Sports championship, defeating Florida 19-7.
The Big 12 plans to have six teams playing women’s flag football at the varsity level by 2028. The ACC, Phillips said last month, is also talking about flag football.
“We've talked to our membership in the ACC about it, and campuses are having internal conversations about what's best for their individual school,” Phillips said at ACC Kickoff in Charlotte, North Carolina. “But it's certainly something that's in our landscape right now as an emerging sport.”
Another data point of evidence for the sport's growth is the audience ESPN drew for NFL Flag's girls high school championship, which averaged 1.12 million viewers, making it the most-watched flag football game on record. By comparison, this year's Women's College World Series for softball averaged 1.6 million viewers per game.
