NFL grant helps Atlantic East become first NCAA conference with women’s flag football

The NFL’s ongoing efforts to promote flag football have led to an NCAA conference making women’s flag football a varsity sport for the first time.

The Division III Atlantic East Conference has announced that this spring will feature the first varsity women’s flag football season in NCAA history, and the conference credited a grant from the NFL and RCX Sports, the official operator of NFL FLAG, for making the season possible.

Flag football will be an Olympic sport for both men and women in 2028, and Rebecca Mullen, interim commissioner of the Atlantic East, said there’s optimism that the sport’s growing popularity will result in NCAA national championships for women’s flag football in future years.

“It’s definitely the hope that it would continue to grow at an NCAA level and that the NCAA will sponsor it,” Mullen told Michele Steele of ESPN. “To see it continue to grow and buy into that is really a unique opportunity.”

Seven schools will participate in the inaugural Atlantic East flag football season: Centenary University, Eastern University, Holy Family University, Immaculata University, Marymount University, Neumann University and Penn State Schuylkill. Two more schools — Chestnut Hill College and Marywood University — have committed to fielding teams in 2026.

The NFL’s promotion of flag football has included a campaign to make it a varsity high school sport for girls in all 50 states, an effort that was highlighted in a Super Bowl commercial this year.

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