Wildcats will hire a head coach this year and take the field in Spring 2028.
Culver-Stockton College (C-SC) will add women’s flag football to its varsity athletic offerings, with the Wildcats scheduled to begin competition in Spring 2028.
According to C-SC Director of Athletics Pat Atwell, the College expects to name the program’s first head coach in the near future. That coach will recruit throughout the coming academic year and assemble C-SC’s inaugural roster. National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) flag football squads currently average 24 players.
“I think it is the perfect time to add women’s flag football to our sport offerings at Culver-Stockton College,” said Atwell. “The sport is growing at an almost unprecedented rate at the high school level, and with the support provided by the NFL, it’s likely to succeed.”
The growth is hard to overstate. The NAIA named women’s flag football its 30th championship sport in 2026, and participation nearly doubled in a single year, from 19 member institutions in 2025 to 35 in 2026. The National Junior College Athletic Association will elevate the sport to championship status in 2027-28.
Atwell also noted that high school numbers are climbing just as quickly. Roughly 68,000 girls played flag football during the 2024-25 school year, an increase of 25,000 over the year before, and 26 states now sponsor the sport. Illinois sanctioned flag football as a varsity sport in February 2024, and Missouri is on track to follow by 2027-28.
“The Heart of America Athletic Conference already has six schools playing flag football, so putting together a schedule will not be difficult,” Atwell said. “The National Junior College Athletic Association has also elevated the sport to championship status, so that is another group of potential student-athletes that we can tap into.”
For C-SC, the addition is also an investment in a student population that performs well in the classroom.
“It is always exciting to add another sport and to provide an additional sport for young women, as their academic profile and retention rate tends to be very high,” Atwell said. “We look forward to hiring our first-ever head coach and helping them recruit this inaugural class.”
Contact the Marketing & Public Relations Office, at pr@culver.edu or 573-288-6000 ext. 6728 for more information.
NOTE: A number that appears immediately after a person’s name (i.e. Jane Doe ’18) is a reference to the year that person earned their bachelor’s degree from Culver-Stockton.