Nebraska women’s flag football coach discusses roster, scheduling and early rivalry

Nebraska women’s flag football coach Liz Sowers told Nebraska Public Media News her team has a leg up by starting earlier than previously expected. The conversation follows an announcement on Monday that the new program will move its start date up by one year to this spring. Previously, the 25th varsity Husker sport was slated to start in 2028.

For the early years, the head coach said the team’s schedule will include a mix of Division I schools and NAIA schools.

“Our goal is to play the best of the best,” Sowers said. “Division I, you have some elite programs that you can see that are up and coming that we definitely want to play. But there's also still some of those really high-caliber NAIA schools that we would like to get on the … schedule.”

Eventually, she expects the talent to separate between NAIA and NCAA programs. About 16 Division I programs have announced they will join the women’s flag football ranks, according to recent reports.

As for any particular challenger early on, a rivalry with Cal Poly is already brewing, the coach said. She and her sister Katie, who’s an assistant coach on the Nebraska staff, originally had planned to head to Cal Poly, after the NCAA approved women’s flag football as an officially sanctioned sport in January.

“We were originally going to coach there, and you can't pass up an opportunity like Nebraska,” Sowers said. “There [are] some national team players on Cal Poly, and so whether they know it or not — and I know they know it — there's a rivalry there already.”

In her mind, there’s no question Nebraska is committed to the newest varsity sport. Being the only Power Four conference program currently with a flag football team “almost feels unfair.”

The upcoming season will not be officially sanctioned as NCAA competition, but the coach is hoping to start playing games in February. “There might be some competitions that happen even before that,” Sowers said. It all depends on the weather, though indoor facilities could be used.

Sowers added that despite the NCAA also not sanctioning a flag football championship for 2027, “I think it makes it more exciting,” to crown a champion in some fashion this spring.

“Ideally, we'd like to get the varsity programs, NCAA Division I varsity programs, together and have some sort of championship or something to play for,” Sowers said. “At least this year, I think that's going to be extremely important in making sure that we continue that evolution of the game.”

The roster construction at Nebraska is complete for this fall. There are 16 women listed on the recently published roster online, several of whom followed Sowers from Ottawa University in Kansas. At that school, the coach won five national championships. Sowers said coaches and players in the existing women’s flag football scene have been dreaming for a big school to pick up the sport.

“I played mid-major basketball, got my school paid for,” Sowers said. “And it started to wear on us at this small, private school watching our student athletes go slowly into school debt. And we knew there had to be something better. And Nebraska is better.”

The scholarships are expected to increase at NU over the next couple seasons, reaching 25 by spring of 2029.

New eligibility guidelines that start a student athletes’ so-called eligibility clock from a certain age led to the decision to move up the first season. Current players on the roster would have lost this year of eligibility, whether the team played or not.

Once it’s up and running, the program can play anywhere from 12 to 24 games in a season, an FAQ page on the Husker Athletics website said.

Sowers said the 7-on-7 style of football, which will be played at Hibner Stadium in Lincoln, combines many of the exciting elements of traditional football that creates “a really fast-paced, high-intensity game.”