Oregon is in.
On Monday, October 12, 2026, the Oregon School Activities Association voted to make girls flag football an official, sanctioned high school sport. The first official season kicks off in spring 2027, with a real state championship at the end of it.
That makes Oregon the 25th state to sanction the sport, counting Washington, D.C. It also means the entire West Coast is now on board: Washington, Oregon and California.
How it got here
This didn’t happen overnight. It took four years of girls proving it.
Girls flag football showed up in Oregon high schools in spring 2023 with just 8 schools. A year later, 32 schools were playing. That was enough to get it on the OSAA’s agenda.
On October 7, 2024, the OSAA Delegate Assembly approved girls flag football as an “emerging activity”. Think of that as a two-year tryout. The rule was simple: get to 50 schools by the end of those two years, and the sport earns a vote on full sanctioning.
The girls blew past it. Per OSAAtoday, the count went from 32 schools in 2024 to 47 in 2025 to 58 in 2026. New programs popped up everywhere, from Bend and Madras to North Medford, Grants Pass and Coquille.
They had help. The Seattle Seahawks have backed Oregon’s state culminating event for three seasons, donated $30,000 and provided equipment so more schools could start teams. Last spring, 57 varsity teams and more than 1,400 girls played. Tualatin beat South Salem 32–26 in the final at Liberty High School.
Back in April, Liberty head coach Rebecca Brisson said this about the coming vote: “I would like to think it’s a no-brainer.”
She was right.
The meeting and the decision
The vote happened at the OSAA’s fall Delegate Assembly meeting. That’s the group of school representatives that decides which sports Oregon officially sponsors.
According to KGW, the delegates heard a presentation on the sport’s growth in Oregon, nationally and at the college level. Then Nike dropped the big one: a set of home and away jerseys for every Oregon varsity team in the inaugural season, plus any school that adds the sport during its first three sanctioned seasons.
Then the hands went up. All of them. The proposal passed unanimously, according to KOIN, and the OSAA made it official that same day. OSAA assistant executive director Kelly Foster said watching every hand go up was “pretty emotional.”
To understand how big this is, look at Oregon’s history. Before girls wrestling in 2023–24, Oregon hadn’t added a new sanctioned sport since softball in 1979. Now it’s added three in four years: girls wrestling, boys volleyball and girls flag football.
Monday, October 12, 2026 – the day history was made in Oregon!
Girls flag football became an OSAA-sanctioned high school sport on Monday, October 12, 2026. The first sanctioned season is spring 2027. The OSAA will release the season dates and rules handbook later.
Who this could affect
The OSAA currently lists 299 member high schools. On the athlete side, Oregon recorded 46,732 girls’ sports participations in 2024–25, according to the NFHS.
Quick note on that number, because it matters: it counts each sport separately. A girl who plays volleyball, basketball and softball shows up three times. So it’s not 46,732 different girls. It’s 46,732 roster spots.
Here’s how the biggest girls sports stack up, plus one long-term scenario for flag football.
Sports: NFHS 2024–25 Participation Survey (Oregon). Flag football, spring 2026: OSAA. Scenario: Flag Football Recruiting estimate, not an OSAA forecast.
How big could flag football get in Oregon?
Let me be straight with you. Nobody knows exactly how many Oregon girls will play, or how fast. But we can look at states where girls flag has been around a while and get a feel for what’s possible.
In 2024–25, flag football made up about 8% of all girls’ sports participation in Florida and Georgia, and about 10% in Nevada. Those are established programs with years of high school play behind them.
So here’s the scenario. If Oregon grows into a program on that scale, it could reach roughly 3,700 to 4,700 flag football participants over the long term. That would be close to three times what Oregon has today, and right in softball’s neighborhood.
To be clear, that’s an illustrative long-term scenario from Flag Football Recruiting. It’s not an OSAA forecast, and it’s not a promise. It’s a picture of where this sport can go.
So where do new players come from? Volleyball, soccer and basketball are natural recruiting pools for a spring sport like flag football. Some of those girls already play a spring sport or club ball, though, and flag’s season overlaps softball and track. The growth won’t come from just one place, and that’s what makes it fun to watch.
Where it goes from here
The college pipeline in the Northwest is already forming. The University of Oregon is launching a club team this school year, and George Fox University has plans for club play in 2027–28.
Oregon makes it 25. Want to see where your state stands? Check out our full list: Which States Sanction Girls High School Flag Football?
If any high school athlete would like to play at the next level, please complete this form!
https://forms.gle/kNe6KMLQZDNr2MpD9
— Scott Gonzalez
Founder | President
Flag Football Recruiting 501c3 Non-profit
