Knox College to add women’s flag football next school year

Knox College is starting a women’s flag football team in the fall. It will be a club sport first, and then become a varsity sport in 2027.

The roster will be between 20 and 25 players. An anonymous donor is paying the start-up funds, and there is a ton of buzz on campus.

“It’s something around the country that people had been talking about. There had been a couple of local schools that had been adding it, but really as the NCAA started exploring it more as an emerging women’s sport, we saw it as an absolute opportunity to enhance our offering for women athletes, and it was just a no-brainer for especially as we saw Illinois really growing in the number of high school athletes that were adding it as well,” said Justin Newell, Knox College’s vice president and director of athletics. “We had an interest meeting of current students, and we had about 25 individuals come out to the meeting, but even some of the male football athletes that we’ve talked to, some of the other student-athletes, everybody is kind of excited about the opportunity and what it will bring. It’s kind of energized the athletic program as a whole. Even though it’s going to be a club game in that first game, I just think there is going to be a general excitement about watching these young women play and perform in a sport that is just absolutely booming.”

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF – OurQuadCities.com.