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.

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.