Campus Friends, 

I wanted to let you know that UIS has announced the addition of women’s flag football to the athletics portfolio as our 18th Prairie Star sport this afternoon.

The popularity of flag football at the high school level coupled with support from the NFL and the Olympics (it will be an Olympic sport in 2028 when the Summer Games are contested in Los Angeles) have accelerated the interest in the sport. More than 69,000 high school players participated last year. 

The Illinois High School Association hosted its second championship this fall with 233 high schools sponsoring flag football. The number of high school teams increased by 45 percent from the first season in the fall of 2024.

While many of the first adopters were in Chicago high schools, this season teams from Champaign, Urbana, Peoria, Danville, Edwardsville and Belleville competed.

At the college level, flag football is a spring sport, and we plan to play home games at Scheel’s Sports Park as a continuation of our partnership with that exciting community asset. In fact, we will play early season home softball games in the dome this February.

We are launching a search for a flag football head coach who will focus on recruiting students to enroll in the fall of 2026 and begin competitive play in the spring of 2027.

By the end of the week, we will post a link to a questionnaire on UISPrairieStars.com for prospective students if you have friends or family that may want to consider joining the first team.

UIS is the second NCAA Division II program in Illinois to announce plans to start the sport in 2027, joining GLVC mate Lewis, who announced 40 days ago. Six Division III programs will play this spring, including nearby Illinois College and Illinois Wesleyan. Four more, including Milliken, Blackburn and Greenville, have announced plans to play in 2027.

It’s fun to be among the first institutions to sponsor this new sport.

I’m grateful for the support of the Chancellor and university leadership for the opportunity to recruit women to UIS to get a world-class education while continuing their passion of playing flag football.

Go Prairie Stars!

Mike

Mike Hermann

Director of Athletics

Office: 217-206-7592