Guilford College in Greensboro, North Carolina, announced yesterday that it will discontinue women’s swimming this fall, and will add women’s flag football as a varsity sport starting in the 2026–27 academic year.
The decisions were the result of an annual college-wide review of all programs and the allocation of resources.
Guilford cited that the swimming program has had troubles meeting the requirements by the NCAA in regards to sports sponsorship and low participation. The Quakers do not sponsor a men’s swimming team, and women’s swimming has been a part of Guilford’s athletics program since 2004.
Guilford sent four of their six women to the Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) Championships back in February, finishing the meet in 11th position out of 11 teams.
“We are very grateful to all current and past women’s swimmers for their dedication to their sport and to the College,” said Bill Foti, the Director of Athletics at Guilford College. “We regret there was not more interest in women’s swimming over the years, and our goal in reallocating resources is increased athletic participation for women student-athletes at Guilford overall.”
Women’s flag football has had an exponential rise in recent years. According to the National Federation of State High School Associations, in 2023, there were approximately 500,000 girls under age 17 participating in the sport throughout the United States.
At least 65 NCAA member institutions currently sponsor flag football at the club or varsity level, and the sport will be included as part of the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The Quakers will begin a search for a head coach and recruitment of student-athletes for the first flag football team at Guilford this fall.
Guilford will sponsor 12 women’s and 10 men’s sports at the NCAA Division III level, and have a total of 434 student-athletes once the addition of flag football and discontinuation of swimming take effect.
And while USA Swimming still can’t find a CEO, the NFL has franchised out pro team names to these flag football teams all over the country and it’s expanding tenfold AND it’s fun to watch; I just watched the HS girls National Championship for flag football on tv last week and it was fun and engaging and these girls were fired up. Hell, my nephew in Massachusetts plays for a 12-under league and it’s got nearly 1000 kids signed up, he quit hockey for this, he absolutely loves it.
I know this article is about Guilford College, but the swimming model as a whole is losing steam…3-4 day 4 hour swim meets, 9 heats of LCM 200 breaststroke at… Read more »
saad
Everything about flag football is cheaper to run than swimming minus the cost of transporting the athletes and their per diem. Swimming coaches and fans should be advocating now for their programs and start fundraising to protect. High school teams with challenging budget issues should start thinking the same way.
Swimming is institutionally expensive – as Flag grows in prominence swimming may be caught as an expensive indulgence in many areas that may not be able to be supported in the future. Start planning to fight now.
Yes. I think a lot of folks think Title IX is killing swimming. For a long time, Title IX is what has saved women’s swimming, at least, because of the number of roster spots it can provide to balance out Football.
With the roster limits shifting all of that, and flag football growing in popularity and becoming an Olympic sport, plus eating up a lot of roster spots…
Women’s flag might actually have revenue, to boot.
All good points – Also there would seem to be a ready made conduit for gambling on women’s football, even flag football!
Agree with your premise. However by starting to plan to fight seems a little late.
I say just throw in the flag, oops I meant towel, and get behind this exciting women’s sport which will surely surpass swamming.