AURORA – The Colorado High School Activities Association has announced the date and location of the inaugural Flag Football State Championships, as both the 4A and 5A championship games will be played at Trailblazer Stadium in Lakewood on Saturday, Nov. 2.
“It was important to host the postseason tournament in venues that could accommodate our participants, spectators, officials, and community partners appropriately,” said CHSAA Assistant Commissioner Justin Saylor, who oversees flag football for the state. “Ensuring a first-class event throughout the tournament was of the utmost importance. We are thankful to JeffCo Public Schools for their support and look forward to an incredible two weeks of postseason flag football.”
Championship Weekend will begin with the two semifinal games for both classifications being split between Trailblazer Stadium and Jeffco Stadium, with the two winners advancing to the state title game later that day at Trailblazer Stadium.
The postseason will begin with first round games at home sites (higher seed hosts) on Tuesday and Wednesday, Oct. 22-23. The second round and quarterfinal games will take place at Trailblazer Stadium, Jeffco Stadium, and the NAAC on Saturday, Oct. 26 with the winners advancing to Championship Weekend.
This inaugural season features 62 teams competing in two classifications: 4A and 5A. Each team will be allowed a maximum of 15 regular-season contests, to be completed by Saturday, Oct. 19. Postseason brackets will then be released on Sunday, Oct. 20 with each classification qualifying 20 teams to each bracket. Four automatic qualifiers will come from 4A, and five automatic qualifiers will be determined in 5A. The remaining 16 and 15 at-large qualifiers, for 4A and 5A respectively, will be determined by the CHSAA Selection & Seeding Index.
The top 12 seeds in each classification will receive first-round byes, while the higher seed will host the first-round matchups.
Regular and postseason games will be 48 minutes of game time, broken into four 12-minute quarters, between two teams of seven players each. Halftime will be 10 minutes. If the game is tied at the end of regular playing time, overtime will be used to determine the winner.
The flag football pilot program was launched in 2021 by the Denver Broncos Foundation. During the two-year-long pilot program, more than 1,400 girls from 50 different schools across 10 districts competed in flag football. From 2022 to 2023, the number of participants in the pilot program ballooned by 127 percent, and that expansion should only continue now that the sport is officially sanctioned by CHSAA.
Colorado is now the 11th state to officially offer girls flag football as a high school sport.