College flag football is the sport of flag football played by student-athletes at colleges and universities. The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) was the first college governing body to sanction flag football as a varsity women's sport in 2021.
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) partnered with the National Football League (NFL) to become the first college governing body to sanction flag football for female student-athletes at the varsity level. Ten teams took part in the inaugural NAIA tournament in the spring of 2021.
The National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) followed and added the sport in the spring of 2023. The Atlantic East Conference of NCAA Division III became the first National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) conference to sponsor the sport in the spring of 2025. Conference Carolinas, a member of NCAA Division II, added flag football in spring 2026. Following an NCAA recommendation, all three of its divisions voted at the January 2026 NCAA convention to add flag football to the organization's Emerging Sports for Women program, effective immediately.