Women’s Flag Football is getting a bigger stage in Canadian university sport.
U SPORTS announced June 3 that women’s flag football will become a pilot sport beginning in the 2027-28 season. The move gives the sport a clearer place within the national university system and adds another championship opportunity for women student-athletes across Canada.
For Queen’s, the announcement comes at a time when its women’s flag football program has already built a strong competitive record.
At the 2025 OWIFA 5v5 Provincial Championships, Queen’s Gaels won the provincial title, while Queen’s Blue finished fourth. The team is divided in half during the 5v5 season to keep their entire squad involved, expanding back to 11 in the winter. Both Queen’s teams reached the semifinals, giving the program one of the strongest showings in Ontario.
The program has also carried that success beyond the province. Queen’s finished fourth at the 2026 Canadian Collegiate Flag Football Championship, placing the Gaels among the top teams in the country.
For Brooke Macaulay, ArtSci ’27 and corner on the Queen’s Women’s Flag Football team, the sport has become one of the most meaningful parts of her university experience.
“Before coming to Queen’s, I didn’t even know women’s flag football existed. Now, I can’t imagine my life without it,” Macaulay said in an interview with The Journal.
Macaulay said the team has given her friendships, confidence, and a place where she feels supported. She described the program as something built through years of work from players, coaches, and supporters who believed in where the sport could go.
Women’s flag football has already had a national collegiate structure through Football Canada, which has hosted the Canadian Collegiate Flag Football Championship since 2022. The sport has also had a varsity presence in Quebec’s RSEQ since 2021.
Now, U SPORTS recognition could help move the sport into a new phase.
The pilot sport designation gives emerging sports a chance to develop within the U SPORTS structure before becoming permanent fixtures. Women’s flag football will hold that status for five seasons while U SPORTS works with member schools, conferences, and Football Canada to decide competition standards and championship requirements.
Macaulay said the announcement feels like recognition for the work already being done in the sport, but not the end of that work.
“One phrase [Women’s Football] Coach Lib has always said is, ‘Keep laying the bricks, one brick at a time,’” Macaulay said. “To me, that means trusting the process and believing that every challenge, every season, and every small step forward contributes to something much bigger than yourself.”
For Queen’s, that process has already been visible. The program has grown into a two-team structure, competed at the top of the province, and pushed onto the national stage. U SPORTS recognition could give that momentum more visibility on campus and beyond.
As U SPORTS grows into the women’s game, recognition could also bring greater visibility to women’s flag football at Queen’s. While football on campus is often connected to the varsity tackle program, women’s flag football has created its own culture and identity, which Macaulay calls ‘a sisterhood.’
Flag football is also set to make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games, giving the sport more attention than ever before.
The details are still being worked out, as U SPORTS has not yet announced which schools will take part, how teams will qualify, or where the first Football Canada or U SPORTS Women’s Flag Football Championship will be held.
Still, the announcement gives women’s flag football a direction it has not had before in Canadian university sport.
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