Olympic torches will soon illuminate Los Angeles, and flag football will make its debut on the world stage.
Yet, here at UCLA, the opportunity to play football at the varsity level remains exclusive to men, leaving women without a pathway to participate in one of the country’s fastest-growing sports.
Millions of girls and women across the country compete in flag football, but UCLA still has no women in the end zone.
UCLA has long been a pipeline to Olympic success. Since 1928, the university has sent 436 Bruins to compete on Olympic teams, bringing home a combined 272 medals. The university boasts these athletic accolades – adding another sport to the lineup would only increase the probability of creating more.
If our campus prides itself on producing champions, it’s time to expand the roster. With LA hosting and flag football debuting in the 2028 Olympics, the university has an opportunity to lead by establishing a varsity women’s flag football team.
A UCLA Athletics spokesperson said in an emailed statement that it is committed to maintaining a championship intercollegiate program with an inclusive culture that generates equal participation. They added that UCLA offers women’s club and intramural flag football and is monitoring the game’s growth.
But monitoring progress is not the same as making it. In the absence of a varsity flag football team at UCLA, female athletes remain sidelined from a sport poised for the Olympic spotlight.
Women’s flag football isn’t just catching on. It’s exploding.
High schools are adding programs across the United States. Athletes of all ages are playing in local NFL FLAG Leagues. Even the 2025 Super Bowl featured an advertisement endorsing the rising sport.
Youth flag football is thriving, and colleges are catching up fast. Shortly after the NCAA announced flag football as an emerging sport for women in January, the University of Nebraska became the first Power Four Conference school to declare plans to create a varsity women’s flag football team.
“Nebraska doesn’t make symbolic moves,” said Troy Vincent Sr., NFL’s executive vice president of football operations in an emailed statement. “When a Power 4 institution with a strong history of women’s athletic excellence steps forward, it validates flag football at the highest level of college sports. It tells peer institutions this isn’t a question of if, but when.”
And Nebraska isn’t the only one.
Peer institutions, including UC Berkeley, USC, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, are among a growing number of universities moving toward Division I flag football programs. These schools are claiming their spot in the front lines of history. Collegiate flag football is moving forward, and UCLA cannot afford to stand still.
“I think we’re going to see a massive explosion of excitement for this sport, and it’s going to be a great, great opportunity,” said Ryan Weisenberg, senior director of development for student affairs at Cal Poly SLO.
This excitement is more than a passing trend. It represents a structural shift in access and possibility for female athletes. While high school programs facilitate interest, it is at the collegiate level that interest evolves into tangible pathways through scholarships, dedicated programs and institutional support.
“For too long, girls with talent and drive simply ran out of places to play,” Vincent said in the emailed statement. “Flag football changes that.”
The costs associated with adopting a new varsity sport are significant, but women’s flag football is well positioned to overcome them. It is affordable, requires minimal investment and remains highly marketable. The sport is ultimately capable of generating widespread excitement and sustained engagement, Vincent added in the emailed statement.
“A women’s flag football team is exciting because it would allow girls to compete in a sport that hasn’t historically been offered to them at the collegiate level,” said Naomi Altman, a first-year cognitive science student on UCLA’s inaugural club flag football team.
Altman and other female athletes are jumping at the chance to play college football, hungry to become champions.
“You can either expand the field of opportunity or watch it expand without you,” Vincent said in the emailed statement. “Acting now means being part of the foundation instead of the follow-up.”
As an institution that has historically acted as a vanguard, UCLA should be part of the foundation.
The Olympics are coming, the sport is growing and female athletes are waiting to see if the university will lead or follow. They are waiting for the chance they deserve.
Let’s make them champions here.
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