History in the Making
Ten schools spanning five states have committed to participation in the inaugural season of ECAC women’s flag football, set to begin on Feb. 27, 2026, with a league media day at MetLife Stadium. Five additional schools have committed to the 2027 season.

“When my coach told me, I think I did cartwheels,” said Sierra Wishnefsky, a fourth-year flag football student-athlete at Penn State Schuylkill. “Now that the Jets are kind of taking us under their wing, it is just something so heartwarming, exciting and inspirational. You have an NFL name backing you, and it’s just so exciting that I get to play at this level.”

Penn State Schuylkill, one of the schools that will compete in the league’s opening season, just introduced women’s flag football to its athletic department in 2025. Wishnefsky, who grew up playing the game with her four brothers, said she didn’t even have the opportunity to participate in an organized version of the sport until the team was established.

Wishnefsky is not alone in her experience. Amanda Ruller, head coach of women’s flag football at Eastern University, started the club team from scratch just earlier this year. And Ruller herself, who played women’s tackle football for Team Canada, never had an opportunity to compete at the collegiate level.

“I told them, you guys were part of history in the making,” Ruller said of the message to her athletes. “And now, being part of this league makes them feel like they’re part of something even bigger than themselves. This is all these women have ever wanted — to belong to something bigger than themselves. It’s so cool that the NFL and the Jets are behind a groundbreaking movement like this.”

Funding from the Betty Wold Johnson Foundation will be distributed to schools to support staff members, travel, officials, uniforms and other administrative needs, and Dan Coonan said programs at all stages of development — including those starting from scratch — will benefit.

“The schools that are with us, so many of them, that funding from the foundation was the triggering point to have them launch flag football,” Coonan said.

But for women such as Wishnefsky and Ruller, the funding only tells part of the story. The name recognition, along with the opportunity to play a championship tournament at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center (and at MetLife Stadium beginning in 2027), will provide youth players everywhere with the opportunity to dream big from a young age.

“I couldn’t imagine being a little girl and seeing, ‘they’re playing in a league sponsored by the New York Jets, an NFL team,'” Wishnefsky said. “Just having the name there — this conference is going to open so many doors.”