MARIETTA, Ohio — Marietta College is adding women’s flag football as its 22nd varsity sport, the college announced Friday, with a national search for the program’s first head coach starting immediately and the Pioneers set to begin competition in the spring of 2028.
Director of Athletics Joe Bergin announced the addition in a Marietta College Athletics release on October 30. "We are excited for the creation of our Flag Football program," Bergin said in the college’s announcement. "The sport is on the rise, and I am happy that the administration has given us the go ahead to start the program. It is going to be fun to see where this sport goes."
The timing is deliberate. With support from the NFL, women’s flag football is one of the fastest-growing sports in the country, according to Marietta College Athletics, and growth is expected to accelerate after flag football was added to the 2028 Summer Olympics and to the NCAA’s list of emerging sports. The NCAA anticipates establishing a National Collegiate Championship for flag football at its annual convention this January, the college said.
The pipeline underneath the college game is already built. Marietta College Athletics noted that more than 230 collegiate club and varsity programs now exist across the country at all levels, and that flag football is a sanctioned championship sport at the high school level in both Ohio and Pennsylvania.
National Federation of State High School Associations participation data for 2025-26, cited by the college, shows 3,990 schools played girls flag football with 102,360 participants nationally. Ohio had 108 schools participating, while neighboring Pennsylvania had 147 — meaning Marietta will recruit in two states where the sport already has an established high school base.
For a school of Marietta’s size, a 22nd varsity program is also an enrollment and campus-life play. Flag football rosters are modest, the field infrastructure overlaps with existing facilities, and the sport gives the college a new recruiting doorway into Ohio and Pennsylvania high schools that have added girls flag programs in just the last few seasons.
With flag football, Marietta will sponsor 22 varsity programs, the college said: baseball, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, coed esports, football, men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s lacrosse, men’s and women’s rowing, men’s and women’s soccer, softball, men’s and women’s indoor and outdoor track and field, and volleyball.
The announcement lands in a busy Ohio college sports week. NewsForce247 has reported on programs investing in facilities and athletes across the state, from the Cleveland youth campus turning a gym into a 15,000-seat field house with the Cavaliers’ help to Akron-area high school athletes of the week — the same high school pipeline Marietta’s new program will recruit from in Ohio.
Marietta College, a private liberal arts college on the Ohio River in Washington County, competes in NCAA Division III and the Ohio Athletic Conference across its existing programs. Adding a sport that is still forming its national championship structure lets a Division III school get in early — shaping a program while the NCAA finalizes the championship pathway the college says is expected to be considered at the January convention.
The Ohio high school numbers explain why colleges are moving now. A sport played by 108 Ohio schools, under a sanctioned state championship, produces college-ready athletes every spring — and until recently most of them had nowhere in-state to continue playing at the varsity level. Each Ohio college that adds a program keeps more of those athletes, and their tuition, in Ohio.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
Confirmed in the college’s announcement: the sport, the 2028 spring start, the immediate coaching search and the program’s place as Marietta’s 22nd varsity sport. Still to come are the head coach’s hiring, the conference and scheduling picture for the first season, roster recruiting details and where home games will be played.
What happens next is the coaching search. Marietta College Athletics says the national search for the inaugural head coach begins immediately, and that hire will build the first roster ahead of the spring 2028 debut. Fans can follow the Pioneers at pioneers.marietta.edu.