Madeline Mott has always wanted to play football.

“Let’s empower women, right? We can all play,” said Mott, a sophomore at Russell Sage College. “I feel like football is seen more of like a men’s sport. But we have a lot of tough women on campus that I’m best friends with so I think it’ll be awesome.”

She’s one of several women at Russell Sage College giving flag football a try. Mott, a volleyball player at Sage, hopes to add this to her sports repertory.

“You have to be quick, you have to be a good teammate. I think that’s big,” Mott said.

That’s because Sage is launching an intercollegiate women’s flag football team. Sage, a member of the Empire 8 conference, will begin playing next spring against teams like SUNY Brockport, Elmira College, Hartwick College and SUNY Geneseo.

“I’m hoping for QB. I don’t really like running a lot,” said Cassidy Weiher, a sophomore who also plays volleyball at Russell Sage College.

“I was like the first one to sign up, I’m going to be honest. I was really excited. I was wanting to get back out there in some sort of way,” said Jordan Jarrell, a junior.

More than a dozen student-athletes showed up to an introduction event recently, where they learned the rules, ran some plays, and competed against each other to get a feel for the game.

“It was great. We had some that were playing on other sports teams. We have some who aren’t affiliated with athletics here as of now,” said Erica Faas-Li, the associate director of athletics and senior woman administrator for Russell Sage College. “I think now we’ll get them now that we’ve added flag football.”

Empire 8 is just the third Division III conference to have women’s flag football and the fifth among all NCAA divisions. It’s currently labeled as an emerging sport for women by the NCAA.

“Coming into college, I wanted to join a sport but I didn’t really find anything that I was interested in,” said Alia Charles, a freshman. “So when I finally got the email we would have girls flag football, I was ecstatic.”

Sage is still in the process of hiring a head coach, who they hope to have in place by July. The team will begin practice in the fall, with the inaugural season getting underway in spring 2026.