The Arizona Cardinals Football Club today announced that the inaugural Great Southwest Athletic Conference (GSAC) Women's Flag Football Championship presented by Dignity Health will be held April 16-17 at the Arizona Cardinals Flag Football Campus presented by State Farm at State Farm Stadium.
The two-day event will feature the top four programs from the final GSAC regular-season standings, competing for the conference's first-ever flag football championship in the sport's inaugural season. Teams in contention for a championship spot include three schools from Arizona (Arizona Christian, Benedictine Mesa, and Ottawa University) as well as Hope International (Fullerton, CA), La Sierra (Riverside, CA), and Simpson (Redding, CA).
The championship will take place at the Cardinals Flag Football Campus presented by State Farm, a dedicated facility located on the southwest side of State Farm Stadium near 95th Avenue and South Loop Road. Each participant will receive a giveaway courtesy of Dignity Health.
Developed in partnership with State Farm, the Flag Football Experience features three painted fields presented by Dignity Health, Avnet, and State Farm on manicured Bermuda grass similar to the surface used inside State Farm Stadium. The facility also includes shaded benches for teams and shaded grandstands for fans on each field, providing a professional-level environment for competition.
The GSAC's inaugural championship marks a milestone moment for the conference as it launches its first season sponsoring women's flag football, one of the fastest-growing sports at the collegiate level.
Tournament scheduling and additional championship details will be announced at a later date.
CARDINALS & GIRLS FLAG FOOTBALL: The Cardinals support of girls flag football is well-established. The team impacts thousands of high school and youth girls flag football players across the state of Arizona annually through a variety of camps, showcases, tournaments and equipment donations. Now, the team has expanded their initiative to the collegiate environment, supporting women competing at the highest level currently offered.
The Cardinals became the first NFL team to have a flag football campus at an NFL stadium and established a two-year partnership with the Positive Coaching Alliance in 2024, pledging $70,000 to help support girls flag football in the state of Arizona and eliminate gender inequity in youth sports. The team has also held girls flag football games at State Farm Stadium during halftime of Cardinals games each of the past four seasons.
Last July, the Cardinals had four girls flag teams, including the high school girls team, Heat Wav, representing the organization at the NFL FLAG Championships in Canton, Ohio. In 2024, the Cardinals became the first NFL team to fully-produce and broadcast a girls high school flag football game of the week that aired on Arizona's Family Sports. The team successfully completed their second full season broadcasting the games last year.
ENORMOUS GROWTH OF FLAG FOOTBALL: Flag football is the most accessible and inclusive version of American football and is spearheading exceptional worldwide participation growth of the sport, especially among women and girls. An estimated 20 million people in more than 100 countries currently participate in flag football.
Flag football will be included in the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, marking the first time in history that the game of football in any capacity will be a part of the Olympic Games. Three collegiate programs (Arizona Christian, Benedictine Mesa and Ottawa University) in Arizona added sanctioned girls flag football programs for the 2026 spring season and joined the GSAC conference.
