New Jersey becomes 21st state to make girls flag football a sanctioned sport

Photo by Brett Carlsen/Getty Images

Add the state of New Jersey to the growing list of states that are sanctioning girls flag football on the high school level as a state championship sport.

[ $19.99 gets you a FULL year of On3 | Rivals national coverage ]

The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA) voted to approve girls flag football as a state sanctioned sport on the high school level, joining 20 other states from around the country. The Garden state becomes the 21st state to make girls flag football a sanctioned state championship/postseason sport. The motion passed with a overwhelming 311-18 vote in favor of sanctioning girls flag football.

Just over a week ago, the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA) and District of Columbia Interscholastic Athletic Association (DCSAA) both announced that they had approved girls flag football as a sanctioned state championship sport. Also recently announcing the addition of the sport was Kansas, which approved girls flag football, becoming the 18th state to sanction the sport with Maryland being the 19th and District of Columbia as the 20th, respectively.

With the addition of New Jersey, below is the full updated list of the now 21 states around the United States that officially sanction girls flag football as a high school state championship sport:

Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
District of Columbia
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Illinois
Kansas
Maryland
Mississippi
Nevada
New Jersey
New York
Ohio
Pennsylvania
Tennessee
Washington

Participation in girls flag football has seen major increases, jumping to nearly 69,000 participants in the 2024-25 school year, per NFHS Network data, and it’s rapidly emerging as an official varsity sport in numerous states, with more than a dozen already sanctioning it and others running pilot programs or preparing to join.