Maryland women’s flag football expands, but some schools lag behind

The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference has put women’s flag football on a championship path for the 2026-27 academic year, and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore moved with it by announcing a varsity team for the same season. The conference said it will become the first NCAA Division I league to stage a women’s flag football championship in 2027, a marker that gives the sport a clearer college route in Maryland and beyond.

The NCAA’s decision in January 2026 to add women’s flag football to its Emerging Sports for Women program sharpened that route even further. UMES said the program will begin in 2026-27, with coaching staff, recruiting and scheduling details to come later, which is the kind of administrative sequencing that usually decides whether a new sport becomes a real rostered offering or stays an idea.

Maryland’s rollout is not moving at one speed. Morgan State University and Coppin State University are not getting the sport immediately, and both schools remain at an earlier club-stage or pre-varsity point. That gap underscores how women’s flag football is expanding school by school, with some campuses ready to commit scholarship money, staffing and competition dates while others are still lining up budgets, conference fit and internal timing.

The national numbers help explain the pressure to move. The National Federation of State High School Associations said 68,847 girls played flag football in 2024-25, up from 42,955 in 2023-24 and 20,875 in 2022-23. NFHS also said 2,736 high schools offered the sport last season, with 16 states already sanctioning girls flag football, two more set to do so by 2027 and 22 additional states operating independent or pilot programs.

That growth matters for college programs because the recruiting pool is no longer theoretical. More girls are arriving at the next level with real game experience, and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics have added another layer of visibility to the sport’s rise. In Maryland, the MEAC’s move gives UMES an immediate varsity lane, while Morgan State and Coppin State show how uneven expansion looks when a new sport is still building its conference, staffing and scholarship base.