Niagara Adding Women's Flag Football Club Team

Niagara University in New York will add a women's flag football club team for the 2025-26 academic year. Niagara is the third Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) school to offer the sport. Iona University (NY) will also add a club team for 2025-26, while Mount Saint Mary's (MD) will field a varsity team for the 2025-26 academic year and compete in the NCAA Division II Conference Carolinas.

The race for the most collegiate flag football teams is led by three states: Florida, New York, and Pennsylvania tied at 24 teams each for the 2025-26 academic year. Albright College (PA) will add a team in 2026-27, giving Pennsylvania a slight advantage when future teams are considered... at least until more schools announce new flag football teams. Over 215 colleges and universities are expected to field a club or varsity flag football team next season, including more than 95 new programs.

The NCAA is looking to add flag football to the Emerging Sports for Women program. All three divisions have supported a proposal for it to be added to the program, which will be voted on at the NCAA Convention in January 2026. Once in the program, at least 40 schools need to sponsor flag football before it can be considered as a possible NCAA Championship sport. The NCAA has well over 40 varsity teams scheduled to compete in the 2026 spring season.

The most recent NCAA sport to reach Championship status after joining the Emerging Sports for Women program is wrestling. Women's wrestling went from 4 teams in the 2018-19 academic year to 76 in 2023-24 and will see its first championship held during the 2025-26 academic year.