Colorado Girls Flag Football: From Broncos Pilot to CHSAA Sport

Girls flag football became a fully sanctioned Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) sport when the CHSAA Legislative Council voted 57-9 to approve it, celebrated at an April 23, 2024 press conference with the Denver Broncos at the Pat Bowlen Fieldhouse. The decision took effect for the 2024-25 school year and made Colorado the 11th state in the country to sanction the sport. CHSAA is the governing body.

Sanctioning followed a three-year pilot that began in 2021, when the Denver Broncos and the Denver Broncos Foundation partnered with three districts, Jeffco Public Schools, Denver Public Schools, and Cherry Creek School District, to fund and run the sport. The pilot ran competitive seasons in Fall 2022 and Fall 2023 and grew sharply: participation reached 1,316 girls across 680 games in 2023, increases of roughly 161 percent in participants and 310 percent in games year over year. That momentum built the case for a full-membership vote.

Since sanctioning, participation has kept climbing. For the 2025 season, 74 teams were fielded statewide, up from a program that did not exist for girls only a few years earlier. CHSAA administers a state postseason culminating in a state championship, and released official flag football All-State teams for the 2025 season.

The Denver Broncos remain the sport's driving force in Colorado. The franchise and its foundation launched and financed the pilot beginning in 2021, co-hosted the sanctioning announcement, and continue to be described in state and local coverage as being at the forefront of what is now one of Colorado's fastest-growing high school sports. Ownership representatives publicly credited the student-athletes for making sanctioning a reality.

Students who want to play should contact their high school athletic department, since sanctioned status lets member schools field varsity teams under CHSAA rules; where no team exists, families can petition administrators to add one, and Broncos-supported programming has helped seed new schools across the Front Range.

The college pathway for Colorado players is expanding rapidly. The NCAA designated women's flag football an emerging sport effective January 2026, with a vote to advance it toward full championship status expected in January 2027. The NAIA will stage its first national championship in spring 2027, and the NJCAA has set a first championship for 2027-28, creating both two-year and four-year routes for high school graduates. Flag football will also debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as a 5v5 event for men and women alike. Nationally, girls high school participation has more than quadrupled since the NFHS's 2021-22 survey, a wave Colorado's trajectory clearly reflects.