For the first time in more than 50 years, Conference Carolinas will participate in Division II football. And for the first time ever, women will have the opportunity to play collegiate flag football at Conference Carolinas schools.
This will create new scholarship opportunities as well as a pathway for student-athletes to play at bigger schools. Both men and women now have more of an opportunity to pursue football after high school thanks to football returning to Conference Carolinas.
Men’s football
Seven schools in the conference opted to field football teams for the 2025-26 season that kicks off Saturday, Sept. 13, with a game between Barton and North Greenville.
Along with Barton and North Greenville, UNC Pembroke, Shorter, Chowan, Erskine and Ferrum will participate in the first Conference Carolinas football season in 51 years.
Barton, Chowan and UNC Pembroke are in North Carolina. This will allow for high school football players to pursue pigskin at the collegiate level in-state. Barton has been in Conference Carolinas the longest, joining in 1930.
A preseason poll was released July 23 with UNC Pembroke and North Greenville atop the poll with 32 points each. Pembroke received four first-place votes, while North Greenville received three.
In third is Shorter with 26 points, in fourth is Barton with 22 points and in fifth is Chowan with 18 points. In sixth is Erskine with 11 points, and in seventh at the bottom of the poll is Ferrum with six points.
The preseason poll was voted on by the league’s head coaches, who couldn’t vote for their own school.
The 2025 Conference Carolinas Football Championship is set to be played Saturday, Nov. 15. The regular season championship will host the game.
The rivalry between Western Carolina and Appalachian State originated in Conference Carolinas football, which was known as North State Intercollegiate Athletic Conference at the time.
Old Mountain Jug
The rivalry dubbed the Battle of the Old Mountain Jug began in 1932. App State was a member of the North State Conference at the time and Western joined the following year.
The moonshine jug itself wasn’t presented as a trophy for the game winner until 1976 after both teams had left the North State Conference.
While both teams were in the North State Conference, the Catamounts only won the rivalry game six times, while the Mountaineers won the game 26 times, including the first 13 meetings. The rivalry also includes a tie in their 1962 meeting.
Western’s longest winning streak came from 1971-75, when they won five straight matchups against the Mountaineers. During the win streak, they were coached by Bob Waters, who played at former Presbyterian College and San Francisco 49ers at quarterback and defensive back. The field at Western’s football stadium is named after Waters.
The highest-scoring game in the rivalry was on Nov. 10, 2007 in Boone when App State dominated to win the game 79-35. That season, the Mountaineers went on to be co-champions in the Southern Conference and won the NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision national champions with a 49-21 win over Delaware.
They played 68 consecutive years until the rivalry was postponed for World War II. Appalachian State moved to the Sun Belt Conference of the Football bowl Subdivision in 2014, which postponed the rivalry. The rivalry will be renewed when they play on Sept. 2, 2028, in Boone. App State won the last nine matchups and has a 58-19-1 record in the rivalry.
While in the North State Conference, App State claimed six conference titles. East Carolina University also won a North State Conference championship in 1953.
Women’s flag football
Conference Carolinas women flag football will kick off this fall with 11 teams. Barton College, Chowan University, Emmanuel University, Erskine College, Ferrum College, King University, Lees-McRae College, Mars Hill University, Mount St. Mary’s University, the University of Mount Olive and Wingate University will participate in the inaugural season of Conference Carolinas women’s flag football.
The conference has partnered with the National Women’s Football Officials Association to become the official league Supervisor of Women’s Flag Football Officials, they announced May 2.
NWFOA staff has worked all levels of football, including NFL flag football, high school and college flag football, international flag football and NFL tackle football. They work with the NAIA and NCAA in both flag and tackle football as officials and in the NFL as replay officials.
“We are thrilled to have NWFOA as our supervisor of officials as we start women’s flag football,” Conference Carolinas Commissioner Chris Colvin said. “The NWFOA has extensive experience at all levels of flag and tackle football and Conference Carolinas is looking forward to working with the NWFOA.”
NWFOA founder Desiree Abrams said, “The National Women’s Football Officiating Association is proud to support Conference Carolinas in the continued development of Women’s Flag Football. We are committed to providing elite-level officiating, promoting integrity on the field, and helping foster a competitive and inclusive environment for student-athletes.”
Women’s flag football was a topic discussed at the 2025 NCAA Convention. The Division II Management Council sponsored a 2026 NCAA Convention proposal to add flag football as an Emerging Sport for Women.
The NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics, which oversees the Emerging Sports for Women program, recommended that each division sponsor legislation to add flag football. Once in the program, a sport must have a minimum of 40 schools sponsoring the sport at the varsity level and meet minimum contest and participant requirements to be considered for championship status.
Olympic sport
There are at least 65 NCAA schools that sponsor women’s flag football at either the club or varsity level this year, with more expected to join in 2026. Men’s and women’s flag football is also included in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
At the high school level, 17 U.S. states have sanctioned women’s flag football programs with 17 other states having pilot programs en route to sanctioned teams.
In the Southeast, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi have fully sanctioned programs. North Carolina has a pilot program with the N.C. High School Athletic Association in discussion to add it as a sanctioned sport.
There are more than 100 high schools in North Carolina that have women’s flag football teams. The Carolina Panthers sponsored the championship game for those high schools.
The National Federation of State High School Associations will help write the rule book for high school flag football. The growth of women’s flag football created their urgency to write the rules for one of the fastest growing sports at the high school level.
“The NFHS is excited about this new sports opportunity—particularly for girls,” said Dr. Karissa
Niehoff, CEO of the NFHS. “Flag is a sport of inclusivity. It can be played in any season (weather dependent), is fast-paced and offers an opportunity for young people to play and others to coach or officiate in the exciting sport of football.”
Flag football will be the 18th sports that the NFHS writes national playing rules for and the first new sport offering since boys lacrosse in 2000 and girls lacrosse in 2016. The NFHS began rules-writing in the 1930s, with football in 1932 and basketball in 1936.