Benedictine Mesa Adds Flag Football

Benedictine University Mesa will add women's flag football for the 2025-26 academic year. The Redhawks are located in Mesa, Arizona, and compete in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).

Benedictine Mesa is the fourth Great Southwest Athletic Conference team to announce the addition of flag football. Fellow Great Southwest members Arizona Christian (AZ), Hope International (CA), and Ottawa (AZ) will also begin sponsoring flag football in the spring 2026 season. The Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) and the Sun Conference are the two NAIA conferences that currently offer flag football as a sponsored sport.

Benedictine Mesa is the latest school to offer flag football. Cairn University (PA), Long Island University (NY), PennWest California (PA), and Wingate (NC) are just some of the schools that recently announced they will start competing in flag football next season. Over 75 colleges and universities across the NCAA, NAIA, NCCAA, NJCAA, and USCAA will launch a flag football team in the spring 2026 season.

In February, the NCAA recommended that flag football join the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program, which provides a pathway to becoming a championship sport. All three divisions could end up sponsoring a championship sport in the future but require a minimum of 40 schools at the varsity level. Flag football will also make its Olympic debut in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games.