Meet the women paving the way for flag football at the NCAA Power 4 level

And on the grassroots level, young women like Pasternak, Scott, Caplinger and the Smith sisters are paving the way forward for college flag football.

“It’s on everybody's radar, obviously. I think we're on the right track, especially with the push of student pioneers,” Pasternak told USA TODAY Sports. “We're all ready to be brought up to the next level… It’s all about timing and place, and the timing is now.”

The club women's flag football teams at USC and UCLA play a game in Los Angeles on Feb. 16, 2026

Pasternak got the ball rolling on starting a flag football club team at USC before her freshman year even started. The native of Huntington Beach, California, drove to the Trojans’ campus and met with the club advisor last year. She started on all the paperwork and created an Instagram account for the team — which now has more than 6,000 followers — and put her team on course to become an official club sport this spring.

When Pasternak first posted an interest form, she got 278 responses.

She fell in love with flag football when her high school started a team in the fall of 2023. When Pasternak was looking at her college options, she had in her mind that if her university didn’t have a team, she would start one. A former sprinter for her high school’s track and field squad, she plays rusher and running back for the Trojans now.

“I wanted to create a space that allowed girls to learn and compete on the competitive level if they've had experience prior,” Pasternak said. “And just to create a space that prioritizes women and allows women the space to play.”

Pasternak says that playing flag football has helped her become a better and smarter football fan. This year, she started a 10-team NFL fantasy league with other girls on campus at USC.

She’s also in constant communication with other presidents of club flag football teams around the Big Ten via a group chat. She also struck up a friendship with Tenley Hill, the president of UCLA’s club team, and together the duo generated some real buzz for two rivalry games this season.

“We're using our rivalry to uplift the sport and really put a platform as to why it should be a Division I sport,” Pasternak said.

Arizona State's Sierra Smith, who founded the Sun Devils' club women's flag football team, runs a route during a practice in 2026.

Now upperclassmen at Arizona State, Sophia and Sierra Smith have always loved football, dating back to throwing the ball around with boys in their neighborhood as kids. When they got to Hamilton High School in Chandler, Arizona, the sisters noticed a flyer advertising a tryout for the school’s flag football team.

“The first time we went out to the field, we absolutely fell in love with the sport and realized how good we were at the sport,” Sierra Smith told USA TODAY Sports.

When the Smiths got to Arizona State, their high school coach, Matt Stone, pushed them to start the Sun Devils’ club team. They started out by playing intramurals, where they were the only women on the field. The Smiths then started trying to get a club team approved and launched, but had to restart the process when former athletic director Ray Anderson resigned and was succeeded by Graham Rossini. This season marks the second for the club team that the Smiths founded.

And now, the girls who grew up around the Fiesta Bowl in Arizona are going to get to play on the biggest stage for the sport at the college level yet.

“It's truly amazing. We've always just felt like we were one step in front of everything becoming what it is,” Sophia Smith told USA TODAY Sports. “I think one of the biggest things, especially for the club teams, is that there's so much that these student athletes are doing behind the scenes that nobody sees.”

The Fiesta Sports Foundation is providing accommodations, meals, ground transportation, gifts and a player hospitality lounge for all eight teams competing. The championship game of the tournament will air live on ESPNU at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday. One of the semifinal games will air before that, too, at 3:30 p.m. ET, and both games will be called by analyst Phoebe Schecter and play-by-play announcer Kyle Bailey. Earlier matchups will be streamed on the Fiesta Sports Foundation’s website.

Getting spoiled by the Fiesta Bowl folks is a stark contrast from what the Smiths usually have to deal with, where they book all the travel for the team themselves.

“We just have always wanted to be a part of something big, and this is just a start,” Sierra Smith said.

After securing her master’s degree from Georgia, Caplinger has remained around the team she helped found as its head coach. She’s also a high school and college referee who officiates tackle and flag football, and works as a senior field operations coordinator with RCX Sports — which has helped the NFL grow flag football around the country.

Caplinger tore her ACL in the first flag football game she ever played in, but the native of Tampa, Florida, stuck with it and has now had a front-row seat to seeing the sport evolve across the nation.

“It's going to be a very popular sport in just a few years, it's going to be very widespread across the country,” Caplinger told USA TODAY Sports. “It's just amazing to see how many women love this sport, and how they all give their heart to it, and just how fast it's growing, and how many opportunities that there's going to be.”

For the colleges who are undecided about whether they should get involved in women’s flag football, one of Caplinger’s players, Scott, has a simple message.

“Schools that don't get on it are just going to miss out,” Scott said. “It's the next big thing.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Meet the women helping flag football grow at Georgia, USC, Arizona State