An NCAA conference is embracing women's flag football. Will the rest of the country be next?

The Atlantic East Conference — a collection of small schools in the NCAA’s smallest division — announced it would launch a women’s flag football season.

Viewers who were still paying attention to the commercials during Philadelphia’s Super Bowl blowout over Kansas City last month may have spotted something different amid the expected advertisements for pizza, beer and mayonnaise: women’s flag football.

That spotlight wasn’t by accident. And this past week, the sport got another boost.

The Atlantic East Conference — a collection of small schools in the NCAA’s smallest division — announced last Wednesday it would launch a women’s flag football season in March, kicking it off with a media event in Philadelphia on Monday at the home stadium of the reigning Super Bowl champion Eagles.

In becoming what it says is the first NCAA conference at any level to sponsor a season for women’s flag football, the Atlantic East said it was “setting the stage for a new era of growth and recognition” for the sport. Not all of the conference’s seven members will field a team, though three outside schools will participate for the flag season only.

The Atlantic East’s plan made news perhaps less for the specifics of the actual competition — Centenary against Immaculata, anyone? — but more so because it reflects growing participation in the sport across the country.

https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/college-sports/womens-flag-football-ncaa-league-rcna194310

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