The first-ever national collegiate flag football tournament featuring Division I universities is coming to Tempe.
The Fiesta Sports Foundation announced the launch of the Fiesta Bowl Flag Football Classic on Thursday. The tournament, sponsored by Oakley, is a two-day, 7-on-7 showcase to be held on April 18-19 at Arizona State University's Tempe campus.
Teams from Arizona State, Alabama State, Charlotte, University of Florida, University of Georgia, Grand Canyon University, UCF and USC will compete.
GCU Lopes Laina Hammen, left, avoids getting her flag taken by an Arizona State Sun Devil during a game at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix on Jan. 24, 2026.
The tournament has been in development for about a year, said Erik Moses, Fiesta Sports Foundation executive director and CEO.
The organization has promoted flag football in recent years, first by naming all-state high school teams for girls' flag football, along with boys' tackle all-state, and later by featuring a Game of the Week for each sport. This past fall, there was the Fiesta Bowl Copper State Invitational, an in-season high school flag football tournament.
“The next natural extension of this arc was looking at the collegiate space, where we know this sport is in its nascency,” Moses told The Arizona Republic. “People and universities in the NCAA are looking at when and whether this sport can become a sanctioned D-I varsity sport. We want to do what we can to spur the growth of this sport across the country and the state of Arizona.”
Flag football was placed in the NCAA Emerging Sports Program on Jan. 15, putting it on a path to becoming a sanctioned sport. Nebraska recently became the first Power Four school to offer it as a varsity sport with scholarships.
The Fiesta Bowl Flag Football Classic builds on the sport's momentum, Moses said.
“The significance is that it is the first national collegiate flag football tournament and the caveat there is, featuring Division I universities,” Moses said. “The notion that we are creating something to bring student-athletes from all over the country to Arizona to compete against teams they normally would not have an opportunity to compete against is the first part of importance.”
Moses said the accommodations — transportation, gifting — provided by the Fiesta Sports Foundation will be similar to what the teams receive for the Fiesta Bowl. There will also be a media day for the players.
NCAA officials are expected to attend.
“We want these players to feel like Ole Miss, Miami feel when they come here to play,” Moses said. “We’re all trying to push in the same direction to help this sport come out of the shadows and become a mainstay in the sports landscape across the country.”
The plan is to expand and continue the tournament.
Fiesta Bowl officials met with Nebraska officials at this year’s national championship game in Miami and shared the concept. Nebraska immediately expressed interest in playing in the future.
“We want to be the premier collegiate invitational for women’s flag football in the country,” Moses said. “We’re going to work really hard to ensure (that). We want this to be the biggest tournament in the country that brings together the best teams, best players together in the Valley of the Sun in order to compete for a championship that we hope will be coveted in the coming years.”
ASU's Allison Rodriquez runs with the ball while several GCU Lopes try to take her flag during a game at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix on Jan. 24, 2026.
Oakley is sponsoring the event, which will include swag for the players.
“Flag football is one of the most exciting growth stories in sports, and we are here to support players from their time at an introductory clinic to local leagues, and however far their careers take them,” Oakley vice president and head of global sports marketing Corey Hill said, in a press release announcing the event. “We are excited to help establish the inaugural Flag Football Classic as a defining moment for collegiate flag football and the future of the sport.”
The games will be hosted on ASU’s Tempe campus at the Fields at Dorsey, the same venue for the Copper State Invitational. The NCAA rulebook will be used for officiating.
As further evidence of the sport's growth, flag football is set to make its debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The Arizona Interscholastic Association sanctioned the sport for high schools in 2023. National high school participation has increased by more than 60% over the past several years, with 17 states sanctioning flag football as a championship sport and 20-plus others participating in a pilot program.
"We think this is something not only the entire sport can be proud of, but that these players, teams, will see what we've done and want to be immediately involved in this when they have the first opportunity," Moses said.
