NFHS to Write Playing Rules for High School Flag Football

INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA (August 19, 2024) — The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) will be writing playing rules for high school flag football, effective with the 2025-26 season, at the request of its member state associations.

The NFHS Board of Directors has approved the first NFHS Flag Football Rules Committee, which is set to meet in January 2025 and author the first official national rules for high school flag football. The 2025-26 NFHS Flag Football Rules Book will be available by May 2025. The 11-member committee will be chaired by Tyler Cerimeli, director of athletics and officials with the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA), and will include eight section representatives along with representatives of the NFHS Officials Association and NFHS Coaches Association. Bob Colgate, NFHS director of sports and sports medicine, will serve as NFHS staff liaison.

“The NFHS is excited about this new sports opportunity – particularly for girls,” said Dr. Karissa Niehoff, CEO of the NFHS. “Flag is a sport of inclusivity. It can be played in any season (weather dependent), is fast-paced and offers an opportunity for young people to play and others to coach or officiate in the exciting sport of football.”

While the NFHS Flag Football Rules Book will be written for both boys and girls competition, the growth of the girls game the past several years drove the urgency for national playing rules.

Currently, 12 state associations have sanctioned girls flag football, and another 19 states are involved in pilot programs at some level. States that have sanctioned the sport for girls include NFHS member associations in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Nevada, New York and Tennessee. Among the 12 states that have sanctioned girls flag football, seven offer the sport in the fall (Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois), four play 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 the number of participants in girls high school flag football more than doubled from 2022-23 to 2023-24. A total of 42,955 girls participated in high school flag football in 2023-24 compared to 20,875 the previous year – a 105 percent increase, according to NFHS high school participation data.

The National Sporting Goods Association’s (NSGA) Sports Participation in the U.S. Report shows overall flag football participation for all ages at 6.2 million and female participation at 1.6 million for 2023. Those were increases from 2022 by 10 percent for 5.7 million total participants and by 55 percent for 1 million female participants. The 2023 figures marked the second consecutive year in which overall participation increased after experiencing declines during the Covid-19 affected years of 2020 and 2021. 

Participation in the all-important youth segment (ages 7-17) was 2.3 million, up slightly from 2.2 million in 2022, according to NSGA. The slight increase was driven by girls youth participation, which jumped from 419,000 in 2022 to 547,000 in 2023. This offset a slight decrease in boys participation during the same time frame. 

Girls flag football has been a huge success in the aforementioned states, led by Florida’s longest-standing program which now has more than 360 schools and almost 10,000 participants. Georgia reported more than 6,200 participants last year, and the Georgia High School Association (GHSA), which has received tremendous support from the Atlanta Falcons, held its third state championship last December – and the girls play during the same time period of the GHSA 11-Player Football State Championships at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.

After starting as a pilot program in 2013, the Nevada Interscholastic Activities Association (NIAA) has offered a girls flag football championship since 2017, and interest continues to grow with more than 1,600 participants and three classes of championships.

The Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) held its first state championship in December 2023 in conjunction with the boys state football championships at Bryant-Denny Stadium in Tuscaloosa, and the AHSAA indicated almost 2,000 girls participated in 2023-24.

Likewise, the Arizona Interscholastic Association (AIA) staged its first event in November 2023. A total of 54 schools competed in the first 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 sports.  

In New York, the New York State Public High School Athletic Association (NYSPHSAA) held its first girls flag championship in June 2024 after several years as a pilot program, and about 4,100 girls were involved this past year. And Illinois and California are sanctioning the sport for the first time in 2024. Although the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) is not conducting a state championship yet, almost 11,000 girls participated in flag football in 2023-24.

The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) will offer girls flag as a fall sport in 2024 and conduct its first state championship October 18-19. Craig Anderson, IHSA executive director, said the addition of girls flag football furthers the IHSA mission of creating participation opportunities for high school students in Illinois.

Flag football will be the 18^th sport for which the NFHS writes national playing rules and the first new sport offering since boys lacrosse (2000) and girls lacrosse (2016). The NFHS – the pre-eminent sports rules-writing organization – began rules writing in the 1930s with football (1932) and basketball (1936). Beyond football, basketball, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse, the NFHS writes playing rules in 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 been growing at the youth levels for the past 10 years,” Niehoff said. “In 2023, about 500,000 girls ages 6-17 played flag football – a 63 percent increase since 2019. At a higher level of competition, more universities are beginning to offer flag football for girls, which will certainly enhance the appeal for girls playing the sport at the high school level. And internationally, the sport received a huge boost with the addition of flag football as an Olympic sport for men and women at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.

“The NFHS looks forward to being involved with the continued growth of flag football in schools nationwide, particularly in formulation of playing rules, as more opportunities for participation unfold in all 50 states.”