Women’s flag football in the ACC? Jim Phillips says conversations are happening

Women’s flag football in the ACC? Jim Phillips says conversations are happening

AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — Women’s flag football continues to gain momentum at the college level as the sport barrels toward its Olympic debut at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Following the NCAA adding flag football to its Emerging Sports for Women program in January, more than a dozen Division I institutions have announced they are adding the sport at the varsity level. Nebraska is the first — and still the only — Power 4 team to announce its intentions, with a team coached by Liz Sowers aiming to take the field by 2028.

The Fiesta Sports Foundation recently held a women’s flag football national championship tournament comprising of mostly Division I club teams in Arizona, and the Big 12 plans to have six teams playing women’s flag at the varsity level by 2028. The Big South, a mid-major Division I conference, will play a varsity season in 2027.

But what about the rest of the Power 4 conferences?

More: Which states have sanctioned girls high school flag football?

At ACC Spring Meetings this week in Florida, league commissioner Jim Phillips said the conference has had some preliminary and exploratory discussions about the sport.

“We've had some conversations just on the surface,” Phillips said Wednesday, May 13. “I don't think there's anything substantive I could tell you about it, but it's a great game. It promotes the sport of football. It's another women's sport — you're in a room here with a commissioner and staff that believes in that.”

The ACC has long been a conference that embraces women’s sports. Its women’s basketball tournament is the longest-running one in the NCAA and is celebrating its 50th anniversary next year. The ACC sponsors 15 women’s sports, the most in the Power 4.