At the request of its member associations, the NFHS will establish playing rules for flag football that will take effect beginning with the 2025–26 season and address the fastest-growing high school sport in the country.
The NFHS Board of Directors has approved the first NFHS Flag Football Rules Committee to meet in January 2025 to develop the first official national rules for high school flag football. The 2025-26 NFHS Flag Football Rules Book will be available in May 2025.
The 11-member committee will be chaired by Tyler Cerimeli, athletic director and official of the Arizona Interscholastic Association. There will also be eight section representatives, as well as representatives from the NFHS Officials Association and the NFHS Coaches Association. Bob Colgate, NFHS athletic and sports medicine director, will serve as liaison to NFHS staff.
“NFHS is excited about this new sporting opportunity – especially for girls,” said Dr. Karissa Niehoff, CEO of NFHS. “Flag is a sport of inclusivity. It can be played any time of year (weather permitting), is fast paced, and provides an opportunity for young people to play and for others to coach or officiate the exciting sport of football.”
While the NFHS Flag Football Rules Book is written for both boys’ and girls’ competitions, the popularity of girls’ football in recent years has made the development of national rules of the game urgent.
Currently, 12 state associations have approved flag football for girls, and an additional 19 states are involved in pilot programs at some level. States that have approved the sport for girls include NFHS member associations in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New York and Tennessee.
Of the 12 states that have legalized flag football for girls, seven offer the sport in the fall (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois), four in the spring (Florida, Hawaii, New York, Tennessee) and one in the winter season (Nevada).
State associations with pilot programs include Connecticut, District of Columbia, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
And participation in girls’ flag football more than doubled from 2022-23 to 2023-24. A total of 42,955 girls participated in flag football in 2023-24, compared to 20,875 the previous year – an increase of 105 percent.
Girls’ flag football has been a huge success in the above states, led by Florida’s oldest program, which now includes more than 360 schools and nearly 10,000 participants. Georgia reported more than 6,200 participants last year, and the Georgia High School Association, which received tremendous support from the Atlanta Falcons, hosted its third state championship last December — and the girls play at the same time as the GHSA 11-Player Football State Championships at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
After launching as a pilot program in 2013, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association has offered a girls’ flag football championship since 2017, and with over 1,600 participants and three championship divisions, interest continues to grow.
The Alabama High School Athletic Association held its first state championship in December 2023 along with the boys football state championships at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, and the AHSAA said nearly 2,000 girls would participate in the 2023-24 season.
Likewise, the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) has scheduled its first event in November 2023. A total of 54 schools competed in the inaugural championship, and the AIA expects another 40-50 schools in 2024, with rosters filled with athletes from other sports as well as students who have not previously played a sport.
In New York, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association held its first girls’ flag football championship in June 2024 after several years as a pilot program, with about 4,100 girls participating last year. And Illinois and California are sanctioning the sport for the first time in 2024. Although the California Interscholastic Federation does not yet hold a state championship, nearly 11,000 girls participated in flag football in 2023-24.
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) will offer girls flag football as a fall sport beginning in 2024 and will host its first state championship on Oct. 18 and 19. IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson said the addition of girls flag football supports the IHSA’s mission to create participation opportunities for high school students in Illinois.
Flag football will be the 18th sport for which the NFHS issues national rules and the first new sport since boys lacrosse (2000) and girls lacrosse (2016). The NFHS – the premier sports rules organization – began writing rules for football (1932) and basketball (1936) in the 1930s. In addition to football, basketball, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse, the NFHS issues rules for cross country, field hockey, football, girls gymnastics, ice hockey, softball, soccer, spirit, swimming and diving, track and field, volleyball, water polo and wrestling.
“The popularity of flag football – for boys and girls – has grown at the youth level over the past 10 years,” Niehoff said. “In 2023, approximately 500,000 girls ages 6 to 17 played flag football – a 63 percent increase since 2019. At a higher level of competition, more and more universities are beginning to offer flag football for girls, which will certainly increase the appeal for girls playing the sport at the high school level. And internationally, the sport received a huge boost when flag football was included as an Olympic discipline for men and women at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.
“The NFHS looks forward to being involved in the continued growth of flag football in schools across the country, especially in the formulation of rules of the game as more opportunities for participation arise in all 50 states,” concluded Niehoff.
