Roberts Wesleyan Adding Flag Football

Roberts Wesleyan University will add a varsity flag football team for the 2026 spring season. RWU is an NCAA Division II school located in Rochester, New York. The school will announce the program's first head coach at a later date.

Roberts Wesleyan did not state any conference affiliation for next season, but the Redhawks are the fourth East Coast Conference school to announce a flag football team. The College of Staten Island (NY) competed this season, while D'Youville (NY) and St. Thomas Aquinas (NY) will also begin competing in the 2026 spring season.

There will be no shortage of teams for Roberts Wesleyan to face within the state borders. New York has 21 club and varsity teams lined up to compete in the 2026 spring season, just behind Florida (24) and Pennsylvania (22).

As detailed here at Collegiate Flag Football, women's flag football is set to have over 200 club and varsity programs for the 2026 spring season. The NCAA has taken notice of the growth and is proposing that it enter the Emerging Sports for Women program. Eventually, the sport could become an official NCAA championship sport at all three divisions. The NAIA already has nearly two dozen varsity programs, led by the KCAC and the Sun Conference.

15 states have sanctioned flag football at the high school level: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Mississippi, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington. Louisiana approved a pilot program earlier this month, and North Carolina will discuss whether to sanction the sport later this spring.