New Spring Sport: Flag Football
Dear Students and Colleagues,
I have some exciting news to share. Utica University will be adding women’s flag football as our newest spring sport. We will be making a public announcement later this afternoon.
The addition of flag football represents a wonderful and important opportunity to expand opportunities for female student-athletes. Women’s flag football is a rapidly growing sport across the country, including right here in our backyard. At the high school level, there are more than 175 varsity girls flag football teams in New York state, including many in central New York and other regions from which we regularly draw students.
The NCAA Division III membership voted to recognize women's flag football as an Emerging Sport at the 2026 NCAA Convention. We will be the seventh Empire 8 Conference member to introduce the sport, joining SUNY Brockport, SUNY Geneseo, Hartwick College, Elmira College, Russell Sage College and St. John Fisher University.
Recruiting is already underway. We intend to play a non-varsity schedule during the 2026–27 spring season while we build toward varsity competition in 2027-28.
I want to thank Director of Athletics Kristin St. Hilaire for her leadership in spearheading this effort.
Sincerely,
Stephanie Nesbitt
President