College Sports Realignment Roundup for February 21, 2025

There was one piece of college sports realignment news for Friday, February 21, 2025: D’Youville University (Buffalo, New York) will add women’s flag football beginning with the 2025-26 academic year. The Saints are a member of the NCAA Division 2 East Coast Conference. The ECC doesn’t sponsor women’s flag football and it is not known which conference, if any, D’Youville will compete in.

Five NCAA conferences have announced sponsorship of women’s flag football. The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) and Conference Carolinas have done so at the NCAA Division 2 level. The Atlantic East, Empire 8, and United East are three conferences that have or will sponsor the sport in 2025-26. The NAIA has two conferences that sponsor the sport: the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference (KCAC) and the Sun Conference.

Women’s flag football is becoming the most popular addition to athletic departments around the United States. In 2025-26, there are currently 49 schools adding the sport and that number will continue to grow. The second most popular sport to add for athletic departments in 2025-26 is women’s wrestling at 17 and that grows to 25 if we look beyond 2025-26.