BUCS is pleased to announce that flag football will be added to the competition programme for the 2025-26 season. This discipline of American football will operate as the BUCS Regional Flag Football Series, co-designed by BUCS, the British American Football Association (BAFA) and NFL UK.
Flag football is the fastest-growing format of the game both in Great Britain and worldwide. With it’s confirmed debut at Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, the higher education sector presents a significant opportunity to grow participation and talent pathways within the UK. This format offers additional competitive opportunities for current contact players and accessible entry points for athletes transferring from other sports.
BUCS has published the Making Changes to BUCS Competitions Framework, which summarises the current processes for making changes to our competitions framework and introduced new processes. One new process, Route 4 - New disciplines, allows BUCS to add distinct disciplines of existing sports, initially in a probation period, with no BUCS Points and a data-led review to assess the success of the implementation. The Regional Flag Football Series has been introduced via this process
The Regional Flag Football Series will be a third party delivered event, delivered alongside the NFL Flag School competitions and will be run in accordance with BAFA’s Standard Operating Procedures. These events will include Open and Women’s competitions, with events scheduled for Term 3. During the 2025-26 season, we will run five standalone regionalised competitions (Scottish, Northern, Midlands, Western and South Eastern). At the end of this season, there will be a detailed, data-led review of the competition.
If the review is successful, the Series will be fully integrated into the BUCS programme and for the 2026-27 season, with the five regional events as qualifiers, leading to a National Finals event, with BUCS Points awarded from 2026-27 onward.
The American football programme within higher education is evolving, and flag football presents new opportunities for growth and participation. With lower costs and smaller squad sizes, institutions will be able to offer broader American football activity. In partnership with BAFA and NFL UK, BUCS is well placed to drive significant engagement and talent identification, including the realistic possibility of discovering future Olympians from the BUCS student population.
Neal Kington, BUCS Head of Competitions, said: “We’re thrilled to welcome flag football into the BUCS programme. We’re excited to be working with BAFA and NFL UK to deliver this new discipline, which gives students more ways to compete. Thanks to our refreshed competitions framework, BUCS is now more dynamic and agile in responding to changing student demand.”
Chad Ehlertsen, BAFA CEO, said: “The university and college space has long been a driving force for British American football, and we are excited to work with BUCS and NFL UK to bring competitive flag football into that community.
“This new competition not only allows us to deepen our participation pyramid nationwide, but puts the excitement and inclusivity of flag football in the spotlight for an incredibly engaged group of players, coaches, officials and American football fans.”
Dr Chris Long, Head of Youth Football and Grassroots Development, NFL UK, added: “The further expansion of flag football in the UK is incredibly exciting. Over 120,000 children currently play in schools across Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Adding flag as a university sport is a crucial next step to maintain that momentum. University is a key gateway for many future players, coaches, and fans in the game.”
