Guilford College Drops Women’s Swimming for Flag Football
Guilford College announced on Monday that it is dropping its women’s swimming and diving program. The school will add flag football.
The changes came after a college-wide review of the athletic offerings.
The Division III school in Greensboro, N.C., showed just six swimmers on its roster from the 2024-25 season. It includes one coach, 2024 graduate Hannah Lambeth. The team went 1-7 in dual meets last year and finished 11th out of 11 teams in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference Championships. The college said it has “struggled to meet NCAA minimum requirements for sports sponsorship with limited student participation” at the program, which was instituted in 2004.
The discontinuation of swimming will be effective this fall. Flag football will arrive in 2026-27. The swap keeps Guilford at 12 women’s sports and 10 men’s sports.
Flag football is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States, with more than 500,000 girls under the age of 17 playing the sport in the United States. The sports is rapidly proliferating for girls at the high school level, at 65 NCAA schools have moved to sponsor flag football at club or varsity levels. The sports is expected to get a popularity boost with its inclusion at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“We are very grateful to all current and past women’s swimmers for their dedication to their sport and to the College,” Director of Athletics Bill Foti said in a press release. “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.”
