In 2025, flag football joined the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program. Over the past year Division I, II and III schools have had the opportunity to develop teams or transition existing club teams to varsity status. Last month, the NCAA Committee on Access, Opportunity and Impact voted to recommend that flag football move to championship status. If membership votes yes, the first National Collegiate Flag Football Championship could take place in 2028.
Over 100 schools already compete in flag football or plan to compete in the next academic year. Among those in the New York-New Jersey area are DI institutions Long Island University (competed this spring) and Manhattan University (launching next season) and DIII Kean University.
Mandrele Hansford is the head coach of women’s flag football at Kean. In 2025, flag football was a club team. It transitioned to varsity for the 2026 spring season. “Club, everybody makes the team,” said Hansford, noting there were 35 student-athletes. “As a varsity team, we had a tryout. It was definitely night and day from club to varsity — the schedule, the teams we played.”
Varsity sports have full access to athletic department resources, such as tutoring and training facilities. In DI and II, athletic scholarships are possible. The student-athletes who played this spring at Kean were already students at the university, most competing in other sports, such as track. For next year’s team, Hansford has recruited high school students with flag football experience to attend Kean.
“This season, the excitement was through the roof, just to belong to a team,” said Hansford, who also has a full-time job at New Jersey State Police headquarters. “I want to have an impact on these kids the way my coaches growing up had an impact on me.”
In the coming months, DI, II and III are expected to review the recommendation. If a sufficient number of proposals are sponsored, a vote will take place early next year. If passed, an NCAA Women’s Flag Football Committee would be established. Then, it’s game on in 2028, joining women’s wrestling and acrobatics and tumbling, which have gone from an emerging sport to championship status.
“We want to win,” said Hansford. “We’re out there to compete at the highest level. Nothing would please me more than to bring home a championship.”
