On Jan. 12, Alia Pasternak founded the first-ever women’s flag football club at USC.
In high school, Pasternak herself played flag football. She said she noticed a lack of opportunities for women to play at the collegiate level.
Pasternak said she hopes to lift women’s flag football into Division I sports at USC before she graduates.
“When I graduated high school, I kind of felt lost. Like there was no place for me to go,” she said. “Creating a club — and hopefully one day a sport at the college level — will continue that pipeline. So there’s not a big gap between high school and then professional.”
Flag football is one of the fastest-growing sports in America, with a 71% increase in participation by kids under 17 years old, according to the NFL. In 2023, it was announced by LA28 that it would be a new addition to the Olympic Games.
With its upcoming addition to the LA28 Olympic Games and a recently created league in collaboration with the NFL, colleges like USC may be feeling the pressure to consider the sport for their Division I programs.
Of the sport, McKinlee Schneckenberger, punter and cornerback for USC women’s flag football club, said “It’s really good for younger girls.”
“We’ve had high school teams reach out to us and ask to come see us. It’s really cool to see that we’re already making an impact on them” she said.
The BMO Stadium, which is about a four minute drive from campus, is set to be the designated venue for the flag football portion of the LA28 games.
Pasternak emphasized that the timing of the club’s rise in popularity has never been more perfect for the sport to gain the right attention and backing.
“LA28 is putting a spotlight on flag football and forcing pressure on everybody else, colleges, and the NFL to expedite and create support because we need to have a professional pipeline if we’re going to have Olympians.”
According to an NCAA press release Jan. 16, women’s flag football is now part of the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program, an association with the mission of helping women achieve athletic and sport-sponsorship.
Colin Leung, a data science major at USC, said he believed there was a pathway for women’s flag football to reach Division I, so long as there are “enough people who play, and enough people who watch.”
Leung said he is hopeful that the 2028 Olympics will help boost the sport’s popularity.
“It will bring worldwide attention,” he said. “There’s already American football, but flag football is a little bit under-known, so I definitely think [it will bring attention].”
In order to achieve Division I status, the sport must have a minimum of 40 schools sponsoring it at the varsity level and meet minimum contest and participation requirements to be considered for NCAA championship status, according to the press release.
From there, the NCAA Committee on Access, Opportunity and Impact will review the emerging sport and can recommend that it be added as a National Collegiate Championship, according to the program.
Once the budget is approved by various finance committees and boards, the divisions themselves introduce legislation and vote to establish a sports committee.
According to the NCAA sports sponsorship data, flag football in the 2025-26 academic year already has at least 40 NCAA schools that plan to sponsor it at the varsity level.
Among other considerations in the process are its potential Title IX implications. As part of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, the title states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”
The title requires that women and men be provided equal opportunities to participate in sports. While it does not require institutions to offer identical sports, it does require that athletics programs meet the interests and abilities of each gender.
There are no sport exclusions or exceptions, meaning that flag football could be eligible to receive the same funding and respect as other more currently popularized sports.