TEMPE – The inaugural Fiesta Bowl Flag Football Classic presented by Oakley, the sport’s first-ever collegiate tournament, is set to kick off on Saturday at Arizona State University’s Fields at Dorsey.
The tournament features 19 games of 7-on-7 women’s flag football across two days.
Arizona State and Grand Canyon are a part of an eight-team field that also includes Alabama State, Charlotte, Florida, Georgia, UCF and USC.
How will it work?
The 7-on-7 tournament will start with each team playing in three pool play games on Saturday to determine an overall seeding order for an eight-team single-elimination bracket.
Pool play begins on both the north and south fields at 9 a.m. MST.
On Sunday, four quarterfinal and two semifinal games will pave the way for a championship game at Sun Devil Soccer Stadium.
The quarterfinals start at 8:30 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. MST, while both semifinal games start at 12:30 p.m. MST.
The Fiesta Bowl Flag Football Classic championship is set for 3 p.m. MST.
Who will Arizona State and Grand Canyon play?
Arizona State
Arizona State’s pool play schedule includes games against Florida on the south field at 9 a.m. MST, Charlotte on the south field at 12:30 p.m. MST and Alabama State on the north field at 4 p.m. MST.
This marks the second season of Sun Devil women’s flag football after being founded by team captain Sierra Smith in 2024. The wide receiver and defensive back also played an instrumental part in getting the Fiesta Sports Foundation to host the event.
“I’ve been working with Bret Scroggins (Director of Football Engagement), with the Fiesta Sports Foundation for about two years now and we talked about bringing a bowl game to Arizona,” Smith said. “It’s been in the works for some time now, it’s just so exciting that it’s finally here.”
Grand Cayon
Grand Canyon’s pool play schedule includes games against Georgia on the south field at 10:45 a.m. MST, USC on the south field at 2:15 p.m. MST and UCF on the north field at 5:45 p.m. MST.
The Antelopes are in the midst of their third season and currently sit at 3-5 overall. The team last played on March 28 in a 32-26 victory over Arizona in Phoenix.
“I remember we were at practice and we checked our phones after practice,” GCU senior quarterback and safety Ella Bernier said. “We saw that we got tagged, and we looked and we were like ‘Oh my god, we’re a part of the Fiesta Bowl, there’s no way.’ That definitely sparked something in us to really just get better.”
How can fans watch?
Fiesta Sports Foundation announced Thursday that the championship game and one of the two semifinal games will be broadcast exclusively on ESPNU and the ESPN app.
“When ESPN reached out and said, ‘Yeah, we want to be a part of this too,’ I think that’s when the goosebumps really started to get going, where we knew we’re onto something,” Kristina Chumpol, Chief Impact Officer and Chief of Staff of Fiesta Sports Foundation, said. “It’s about these athletes, it’s about celebrating them, and so we want to do that at Fiesta Sports Foundation. But to now have the megaphone, have the viewership of ESPN behind this, that’s momentum. That’s powerful.”
All other games can be viewed at FiestaSportsFoundation.org/FlagFootball.
How does this impact women’s flag football?
The tournament continues the upward trajectory of collegiate women’s flag football after the NCAA voted to add the sport to its Emerging Sports for Women program on Jan. 16.
To ASU head coach Jesse Pap, the next two days represent an indication of an even greater goal.
“To me, this is the stage that we get to show the NCAA as proof that the emerging status is great and we’re certainly grateful for that, but this is ready for varsity status,” Pap said.
“We all know the growth that we’ve seen, in particular, over the last five years. We’ve seen it on the high school level quite a bit. Arizona, just three years ago, the AIA decided to make it a varsity sport. That growth year over year has been incredible. Now it’s time for it to come to college. It’s ready for Division I.”
Over 2.5 million female athletes are currently participating in flag football at both the college and high school levels in the U.S., according to Fiesta Sports Foundation’s original press release in January.
Around 60 Division 1 institutions and 150 total schools offer the sport at the club or varsity level, and on Jan. 26, Makena Cook became the first athlete to receive an offer from a Power Four school for flag football.
The sport will also appear on the international stage in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
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