A new football title chase lies ahead as women’s flag football closes in on NCAA championship status

The next college football power is being built on campuses from coast to coast. Not tackle, but in women’s flag football.

New programs are game planning and rosters full of new players will be taking snaps this fall into spring to possibly become your NCAA national champion in 2028.

Women’s flag football is on the fast track to gaining championship-sport status from the NCAA. There could be a national title game as early as spring 2028, before the LA Games, where flag football will make its Olympic debut.

Flag football currently falls under the NCAA’s “emerging sports” umbrella with more than 120 schools slated to field a squad this academic year. There will be a vote in January on all levels — Division I, II and III — to lock in the sport’s addition. It’s already gained championship status on the NAIA level through a decision this summer and a title game will be held in May.

Schools on every level are already busy assembling coaches, players and recruits — assessing name, image and likeness potential as well as schedules and logistics — to get a head start.

The first sanctioned NCAA Division I champion in the sport might very well be a school that’s not exactly known as a football factory. Maybe a Cal Poly, which is famous for astronauts (think: Artemis II pilot Victor Glover ) but has already recruited two of the top players in the country to campus.

Or maybe a program with a tackle-football pedigree such as Nebraska, which hired Liz Sowers as head flag football coach after she led Ottawa University (Kansas) to five national NAIA crowns.

As for the next star? It just might be that intramural sensation on campus who played in high school. Or a player from the youth flag football pipeline who’s perhaps from a team backed by the NFL. Or one suiting up for a national team as part of USA Football.

“For so long, flag football was seen as just the female version of football or the easier version of football,” said Maci Joncich, a quarterback/receiver for Cal Poly and a member of USA Football’s national squad. “Now, it’s getting the respect it deserves.”

The stars of tomorrow

Rod Sherman was brought on board with his wife, Kristen, in March to oversee the program at Cal Poly (notable alum: Hall of Fame coach John Madden ). A longtime high school football coach, Rod Sherman once mentored NFL standout Christian McCaffrey. Sherman also helped his wife oversee a successful high school women’s flag football program in California.

They’re already assembling an All-Star roster, landing Team USA receiver/safety Ashlea Klam and Joncich. Klam came from NAIA power Keiser University in Florida and Joncich from Florida, where she played for the club team. Team meetings, practices and lift sessions start this month as they prepare for a spring season. The Mustangs are slated to play a 24-game varsity schedule that’s still being finalized with planned trips to Texas, New York, North Carolina and Arizona.

Looking down the road to a looming NCAA title game, Joncich said: “It’s so cool.”

Women’s flag football is looking to join a list of sports that have gained NCAA championship status through the Emerging Sports for Women program, which was designed to bridge the participation gap between genders. The program has led to the inclusion of women’s sports such as ice hockey, wrestling, and, new this academic season, acrobatics and tumbling, along with stunt (derived from cheerleading). Flag football was approved as an emerging sport last January, effective immediately.

“We’re a very football-heavy country,” said Gretchen Miron, who amplifies women’s sports through her role as the NCAA’s director of education and external engagement. “So for women and girls to move directly into this as participants rather than just as observers or contributors in other ways has been very exciting to see.”

The NFL has thrown its weight behind the sport by sponsoring teams and tournaments. Last month, the NFL Flag Championships were held in Westfield, Indiana, where 350 squads — more than 3,500 girls and boys — from 13 countries took the field. It played well across ESPN platforms as the girls’ high school championship contest averaged 1.12 million viewers. College flag football coaches showed up to scout potential players.

“Having different visions of what (female players) can do because of what they’ll see as possible by this current group of trailblazers that have done so much for this younger generation is symbolic of so much in our society,” Sherman said. “They don’t have to compromise on their quest to be great.”

Flag football at the club level

Think of UCLA football and Hall of Fame names such as Troy Aikman spring to mind. Tenley Hill is creating her own gridiron legacy as the president of the UCLA flag football club. The linebacker/receiver/communications major assembled a 19-player squad from scratch after playing in high school.

This club team could possibly become a foundation for the varsity squad. It’s not unprecedented. The men’s and women’s hockey teams for Penn State played club in the American Collegiate Hockey Association before transitioning to the Division I ranks.

“It’s been surreal to help lay the groundwork for what I see as the next big sport,” Hill wrote in an email to The Associated Press. “A lot of the girls who joined had never played flag football before, but turned out to be incredible athletes and have become incredible flag football players.”

To assemble the squad, Hill relied on the assistance of NIRSA, an organization that provides resources for college club and intramural teams. It already has numerous schools signed on this season for women’s flag football as a club sport, ranging from Georgia to Florida State to Indiana ( home of the NCAA football national champions ).

“The growth is incredible,” said Pam Watts, the executive director of NIRSA. “The pace is like something we’ve never seen.”

Flag football is now sanctioned as a high school girls varsity sport in more than 20 states. What’s more, the NFL teams voted last December to support the development and launch of a pro flag football league.

USA Football also fosters growth. Joncich and Klam are heading to Germany this month as part of Team USA for the IFAF flag football world championships before returning to Cal Poly for classes and more flag football.

NFL legends are getting involved

NFL legends are also getting involved in women’s flag football. Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young has two daughters, Summer and Laila, who’ve shined in the sport.

“This game is made for girls,” Young said at a recent camp he put together at a high school in Oakland with his foundation and through Sutter Health. “At its roots, the tactics and the choreography, not the hitting, but the choreography, the roots of football, it’s made for girls.

“Now that it’s getting into college and you’ll see it in the Olympics, there will be an explosive effect to it. The girls are going to thrive.”

More than 68,800 girls played high school flag football in 2024, according to a participation survey by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

“The boys had the game forever,” Hall of Fame receiver Jerry Rice said, “and now the girls have the opportunity.”

AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL