The University Interscholastic League is hosting its annual October Legislative Council meeting Sunday, Oct. 15 and Monday, Oct. 16 in Austin. One item on the agenda is to hear a proposal to add girls flag foot- ball as a UIL-sanctioned activity.
The meeting begins with a public forum Sunday, which allows speakers to propose amendments to UIL rules. Timothy Rising is scheduled to formally propose sanctioning the sport to the legislative council Sunday at 9:20 a.m.
Since the proposal was submitted by the public, it is not necessarily endorsed by UIL at this time.
The UIL’s athletics standings committee will come up with a recommendation during a meeting later that morning. The committee will either recommend the legislative council to approve the implementation of the proposal, reject the proposal or place the proposal on a ballot.
Then the legislative council will hear the committee’s recommendations and potentially vote Monday morning. While the details and rules of the sport would still need to be ironed out, the legislative council can look to other states for examples of what sanctioned flag football would look like. Seven states have sanctioned girls’ flag football, with Alabama on track to become the eighth next year in addition to some other states currently in temporary pilot
programs. If Texas were to model the rules laid out by the California Interscholastic Federation, California’s version of UIL, the game would be played with seven players on the field. Additionally, their rules outlaw blocking, make every player an eligible receiver and require each player to wear three detachable flags on a belt.
UIL Communications Manager Julia Zachary said if the standing committee were to recommend action by the full council on a proposal, the referendum ballot stipulation would be included in that. She said the majority of UIL rule proposals do not end up going to a referendum ballot.
Superintendents would have one vote for each high school in their district if there were to be a ballot. The commissioner of education, Mike Morath, would then have to approve it before it could be implemented.
Wheelchair tennis, boys’ volleyball and drone competition are other proposals that will be presented this weekend at the
meeting. The last sanctioned sport the UIL added was water polo in 2019.
