Saint Benedict and Richard Bland Adding Women's Flag Football
Two more schools have announced the addition of flag football. The College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota, will add a women's flag football club team for the 2025-26 academic year. Saint Benedict is a member of NCAA Division III and will compete in the Midwest College Women's Flag Football League (MCWFFL).
The MCWFFL was created after support from the NFL's Minnesota Vikings earlier this year. The College of Saint Benedict will also partner with the Vikings, while some current students were instrumental in getting the school to launch the team.
Augustana University (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), Bethel University (Arden Hills, Minnesota), Concordia College Moorhead (Moorhead, Minnesota), Gustavus Adolphus College (St. Peter, Minnesota), the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (Roseville, Minnesota), and the University of Wisconsin-Stout (Menomonie, Wisconsin) competed in the inaugural MCWFFL season during the spring of 2025. UW-Stout captured the MCWFFL championship by defeating Augustana 41-36. The College of Saint Benedict will become the seventh team to join the league.
Minnesota now has five teams with the addition of CSB, with all five teams competing in the MCWFFL. The College of Saint Benedict's primary conference is the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), which now has four members that sponsor flag football. The other are Bethel, Concordia Moorhead, and Gustavus Adolphus, which will be joined by CSB in the MCWFFL.
More than 220 schools are expected to compete in flag football during the 2025-26 academic year, either at the club or varsity level. Over 100 new programs will begin competing during the 2025-26 academic year. Flag football is expected to be added to the NCAA's Emerging Sports for Women Program early in 2026 and could achieve NCAA Championship status in 2028.
Richard Bland College, located in South Prince George, Virginia, will begin competing during the 2026-27 academic year. RBC is a member of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). The Statesmen are the first junior college in Virginia to add flag football.
There are currently eight schools in Virginia that sponsor flag football. The four varsity programs are Ferrum College (NCAA D-II), Hollins University (NCAA D-III), Marymount University (NCAA D-III), and Virginia Wesleyan University (NCAA D-III). The four club teams are Norfolk State University (NCAA D-I), Radford University (NCAA D-I), University of Virginia (NCAA D-I), and Virginia Union University (NCAA D-II).