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 weeks
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.
Rules
Until the NFHS publishes a rules book for girls' flag football, TSSAA member schools will follow NIRSA rules. TSSAA will work with RCX Sports/NFL Flag to develop a rules pdf document that will be posted on our website by the end of July 2024.
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.
