FOND DU LAC - Marian University has been named the host for the inaugural Northern Athletics Collegiate Conference Tournament (NACC) for women's flag football.

The inaugural NACC Women's Flag Football Tournament will take place Saturday, April 25 from Smith Field on the campus of Marian University.  There will be four games as part of the tournament with two semifinal games at noon and 1:30 p.m.  A consolation game will then take place at 3 p.m. with the championship game slated for 4:30 p.m.  Times are subject to change based on minimum time requirements for between games.  Live video for all games will be available at https://sabreathletics.com/watch with live statistics found at https://sabreathletics.com/sidearmstats/flagfootball/summary.

Marian University, Aurora University, Benedictine University, and Rockford University are the four institutions who are actively competing in women's flag football and will clash in the inaugural NACC Tournament.  Lakeland University and Wisconsin Lutheran College have also recently announced the addition of women's flag football.  Seeding for the NACC Tournament will be determined based on a pre-tournament meeting to be held at a later date.

The sport of flag football is currently in a phase of rapid expansion.  The National Football League (NFL) has been at the forefront for this expansion with the creation of its NFL Flag program.  NFL Flag, the largest youth flag football organization in the United States, currently features over 1,600 teams serving more than 620,000 youth athletes.  In October of 2023, the sport was further fueled thanks to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announcing the sport would make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

The sudden growth, especially at the collegiate level, led the NCAA to add women's flag football to its NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program during the 2026 NCAA Convention.  The initiative, which was established in 1994, aims to increase participation opportunities and help new sports achieve NCAA championship status.  Recent sports that successfully emerged from the NCAA Emerging Sports for Women program include rowing, ice hockey, water polo, bowling, beach volleyball, and wrestling.  The sport is on track to reach NCAA championship status by 2028.  There are currently at least 40 NCAA institutions that sponsor flag football with the most recent data showing Division III as the leader with at least 23 teams.

The full Tournament Central page for the NACC Women's Flag Football Tournament can be found at https://sabreathletics.com/sports/2026/4/2/ffb-nacc-tourney.aspx.  This will be the second conference tournament Smith Field hosts this academic year after Marian University hosted the 2025 Collegiate Field Hockey Conference Tournament in November.