NAIA elevates women’s flag football to championship sport in 2027

The NAIA made women’s flag football its 30th championship sport, moving the association from invitational status to a full title event beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. The 2027 national championship will use a 12-team single-elimination bracket, a step up from the 8-team double-elimination format used for the 2026 invitational, and the NAIA also shifted the game to 15-minute quarters.

Women’s flag football started as an emerging sport in 2021, reached invitational status in 2026, and is heading to championship status in 2027. More than 60 teams and five conferences are lined up for next spring, with about 60 NAIA institutions expected to sponsor the sport in 2026-27. The NAIA was first to recognize the sport on a national level in partnership with the NFL.

The Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference added women’s flag football and women’s golf as championship sports on June 16. The MEAC is now the second NCAA Division I conference to sponsor women’s flag football. In 2023, the conference launched its Girls on the Gridiron Flag Football Clinic with the NFL and RCX Sports. Michael Vick served as a guest at the 2024 clinic.

The NCAA added flag football to the Emerging Sports for Women program on January 16 and received a recommendation on May 19 to move the sport toward championship status, with a projected first NCAA championship in spring 2028 if approved. At least 65 NCAA schools were sponsoring women’s flag football at the club or varsity level in 2025-26.

Chestnut Hill is joining the ECAC, Manchester is adding a varsity team and becoming the first HCAC school to do so, Park University is adding a varsity team, Sacramento State is moving toward a club team and eventual varsity status, UC Davis is joining NIRSA’s women’s flag football league, and Maryland Eastern Shore is adding a varsity program in the MEAC. The ECAC league is being run with the New York Jets, and NIRSA’s club league centralizes scheduling, standings, rosters and communication, with registration open until October 1, 2026. The NFL’s March 30 partnership with TMRW Sports will develop a professional flag football league for women and men.