Girls Flag Football in Mississippi: MHSAA Sanctioning and the Saints-Backed First Season

Girls flag football became an officially sanctioned Mississippi high school varsity sport on January 28, 2025, when the New Orleans Saints and the Mississippi High School Activities Association jointly announced the move. The announcement made Mississippi the 14th state to sanction girls flag football, and the partnership pairing an NFL franchise with the state association followed the model used across the South, where NFL clubs have supplied the seed funding and organizational push behind new programs.

The MHSAA governs the sport, and the inaugural season ran in the spring of 2025 with games kicking off in late March. The Saints and MHSAA initially highlighted a starting group of 12 schools, including Brandon, East Central, George County, McComb, Meridian, Oak Grove, Perry Central, Picayune, Richland, South Pike, St. Martin and Vancleave, with early-season play centered at venues including Southwest Mississippi Community College and Picayune High School. The season culminated in the state's first girls flag football championship, contested as a 16-team playoff bracket that opened with first-round games on April 30 and concluded on May 9, 2025. George County won that inaugural title, becoming the first program to be crowned MHSAA girls flag football state champion.

The New Orleans Saints were the driving force behind sanctioning. Saints owner Gayle Benson framed the partnership as bringing the excitement of girls' flag football to the state of Mississippi, and the organization positioned the initiative around expanding access to athletics while developing leadership and teamwork among young women. As Mississippi's program matures, the club's involvement mirrors the Titans' role in Tennessee and the Eagles' and Steelers' role in Pennsylvania, where NFL backing has repeatedly been the tipping point for state sanctioning.

For Mississippi players looking beyond high school, the college pathway is arriving quickly. The NAIA is set to hold its first national women's flag football championship in spring 2027. The NCAA designated women's flag football an emerging sport in January 2026, with a formal adoption vote expected in January 2027, and the NJCAA is targeting a first championship in the 2027-28 academic year. Flag football will also appear at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics as a 5-on-5 event for both men and women. Nationally, girls high school participation has more than quadrupled since the 2021-22 NFHS survey, and Mississippi's early-2025 entry adds another Southern state to that wave.

Students who want to play should ask their school's athletic director whether the school sponsors an MHSAA girls flag football team for the spring season, since the sport is now a sanctioned varsity offering with a state playoff. With its first champion crowned and the Saints continuing to invest, the near-term outlook in Mississippi is growth beyond the initial cluster of programs and expansion of the state championship field in the seasons ahead.