Sanctioning
On April 9, 2024, Girls' Flag Football was sanctioned by the TSSAA Legislative Council as an emerging sport. Emerging sports are treated the same as all other TSSAA-sanctioned sports except that a state championship will not be offered initially. Instead, TSSAA will work to classify participating schools into districts, regions, and/or sections for a postseason invitational.
All emerging sports, regardless of initial participation numbers, must go through a one-year trial period before a state championship will be added. It will be the responsibility of the Board of Control to approve a state championship after the trial period and once the TSSAA office has determined that participation numbers have increased, there exists an appropriate amount of geographic representation throughout the state to execute postseason qualifying procedures, and the state championship can be implemented by existing TSSAA staff. Emerging sports can remain in the emerging sport category indefinitely until a state championship is added. Once a sport is sanctioned with a state championship, the state championship will not be removed even if participation numbers fall.
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Season
While an emerging sport, schools can currently choose to play in any season as long as they meet the following stipulations of the sports calendar:
- Maximum number of regular season contests - 16
- 3 weeks of practice allowed before the first contest date
- Regular season cannot extend past 10 week
Please note that scrimmages are allowed, provided both schools have practiced for 3 days and have not yet played in any regular season contests. Similarly, schools playing girls' flag football in the spring are allowed the 8 days of preseason practice, while schools playing in the fall are allowed 8 days of offseason practice. Scrimmages are NOT allowed in the preseason or offseason.
TSSAA will organize a postseason invitational for the spring of 2025.
Once the Board of Control approves a state championship, girls' flag football must be played in the same season as that championship. Currently, the majority of participating schools are playing in the spring.
Classification
We currently have 160 schools that have indicated interest in participation this school year, so we have placed those schools into districts for an initial classification found here: Girls' Flag Football Districts. This classification is for the postseason. There is currently no requirement that schools play every school in their district during the regular season, but we would like to invite the top team from each district to a postseason invitational tournament on May 7-8, 2025 in Murfreesboro. Thus, we would propose that each district have some sort of tournament or seeding to decide the district champion by Saturday, May 3, 2025. More information about the postseason invitational tournament can be found here.
*Please note: Schools in districts 2 & 4 have indicated they will be playing in the fall, so if you are in their geographic area but are choosing to play in the spring, that is why you have been placed in a different district.
Rules
Until the NFHS publishes a rules book for girls' flag football, TSSAA has developed a rules document that can be accessed here:
Girls' Flag Football Rules for 2024-25
Officials
Assigning officers from our tackle football officials' associations have agreed to assign officials for girls' flag football. You can find a list of those individuals here: Girls' Flag Football Officials' Associations. Since there is no official first contest date, make sure your officials’ association understands when you will be playing your season. Our recommendation for assigning fees is $20 per home date, no matter how many games are played on that date.
The following officials' fees should be used for girls' flag football, with 3-person crews needed during the regular season and 4-person crews needed for the postseason.
- $50 per official for a single varsity game
- $40 per official per game if more than one varsity game at a site
- $25 per official for JV games
More Information
For more information about the schools that have participated in the girls' flag football pilot program with the Titans, click here.
Reach out to Emily Crowell at ecrowell@tssaa.org for more information regarding girls' flag football as a TSSAA sport.
