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In the email today:
🤠 Texas Finally Moves The Chains
High school girls flag football and the Lone Star State would seem like a no-brainer, but it has been a surprisingly long road to sanctioning.
And while traffic has finally picked up, there is still a ways to go.
The UIL — the state’s governing body for high school sports — has finally signed off on a girls flag pilot program after punting several times.
But it will not launch for another two years.
Set to kick off in 2028-29 academic year
State education commissioner still must approve
Undecided what season competition will occur
Only two classifications to start; Classes 5A, 6A will be prioritized
Schools may be allowed to play up
Tempering the excitement: Only 52% of the superintendents in those classes — the state’s largest — support sanctioning the sport, according to The San Antonio Express-News.
School budget constraints are often cited as a reason for Texas to not jump headfirst into the fast-growing sport. But the state’s NFL teams are taking that excuse off the table in many ways.
The Cowboys and Texans have made significant investments into their own pilot programs, including a first-ever state championship event last June. The Texans have previously said they expect 270 schools and close to 6K athletes to compete in 2027.
Twenty-five states and the District of Columbia have sanctioned girls flag so far. Indiana is expected to become the 26th state next year; Missouri appears to have the inside track to be the 27th.
As always: Be sure to bookmark our girls flag sanctioning tracker.
The flag process in Texas has been strange, but sanctioning feels inevitable now that there is a pilot program on the books. And it is another reminder that NFL teams can make a major impact getting states on board.
Something I am watching for: When -- and how -- the league gets involved in the 11 states (by our count) that do not have pilot programs, whether they are powered by a governing body or a team/organization.
Those states: Arkansas, Idaho, Maine, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Some of them would have obvious partners -- the Patriots could get involved with the New England states, for example -- but others are a bit more isolated.
📋 Where safety starts*
Youth sports parents have more choices than ever before.
They also have less patience for programs that cannot clearly demonstrate how they are protecting their kids.
Safety is a business decision. It drives -- and protects -- growth, helps retain volunteers and keeps insurance premiums low. Ankored's free compliance guide can help your organization get started with guidance on:
State laws and changes
Background checks
Coach training and education
Audibility
Incident response
Safety is culture, not overhead.
Download the free guide, see where your program stands and create a plan to ensure you are audit-ready.
*Sponsor
🏟️ Capacity Sports Group Adds To C-Suite
Mike Kenney has been named Capacity's new chief revenue officer.
The former Ripken Baseball CEO "will help advance Capacity’s revenue strategy, working with its businesses to develop commercial partnerships and opportunities for growth across events, facilities and programming."
Kenney is the latest of several recent additions to Capacity's management team behind CEO Ken Kocher and President Blake Hibler:
COO Dan LeBlanc
SVP of M&A Surry Wood
Chief of Staff Kristen Ajamie
Director of Corporate Development John Vardzel
Kenney spent over a decade with the Harlem Globetrotters prior to his five years atop Ripken. The All-Ripken Games and Ripken Select were launched during his tenure.
💰 Cool New Feature Coming To LeagueApps
Forgot to mention this in yesterday’s NextUp Conference send — eligible users will be able to tap funding via Stripe Capital in Q4 of this year.
Quick applications for business loans, merchant cash advances
Based on transaction history
One flat fee for financing
Repayment comes out of incoming transactions
The concept is not new; Stripe and others have been doing this for small businesses for some time. But the ease of access for youth sports operators is — and Stripe says businesses see a 27% spike in revenue on average after accepting an offer.
👩⚖️ Nassar Judge Sounds Off
Michigan Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina — who presided over one of disgraced sports doctor Larry Nassar’s trials — blasted the reforms made by governing bodies and leaders worldwide since the USA Gymnastics scandal.
Aquilina made the comments to Reuters while speaking at a Gymnasts for Change International event in the Netherlands.
"I think it's failing in almost every way. I think that what they've done across the world is window dressing to say, 'Look at us, look what we've done so well,’ and they're still not being accountable for the things that they're not doing. Safety is a human right and yet these athletes still feel that they don't have it because the sport they love will go away if they complain about anything and so we haven't come far enough at all. I don't think we're going to see a change in my lifetime. I think it's going to take decades.”
The report said other speakers defended the progress made with abuse reporting and safety reforms since the Nassar scandal.
Aquilina has become outspoken about abuse in sports since she sentenced Nassar to up to 175 years in prison and allowed over 150 victims to testify in a week-long hearing. A state appeals court later rebuked Aquilina for making “wholly inappropriate” comments about Nassar during the hearing, but declined to re-sentence.
Quick Take: Safety remains a hot topic. Congress established the U.S. Center for SafeSport in the wake of the Nassar scandal, but it is not sufficiently funding its current mission to oversee all NGBs under the USOPC. Now lawmakers are examining the ongoing AAU scandal amid the well-documented challenges all industry stakeholders deal with.
🏈 Overtime’s Girls Flag Event Gets Sponsor
State Farm will partner with the platform on its first All-America game, according to Marketing Brew.
ICMYI: Overtime, the All-America Bowl and NBC previously announced plans to add girls flag to the OT7 7-on-7 football championship event next summer.
State Farm will also maintain its partnerships with Overtime’s basketball and football brands and add an NIL component.
🔸 Facilities Arms Race: Rocky Top Edition
A decades-old municipal golf course in Knoxville, Tennessee, could become the site of a youth sports complex.
18-hole course likely condensed to 9 holes
“Tournament ready” rectangular multi-purpose fields added
Potential for hotels, retail on 156-acre property
City and county officials said the complex would address local facilities needs, but also aim to attract regional and national events.
Quick Take: Knoxville — home to the University of Tennessee — has a lot going for it from a geographic standpoint. A bevy of big cities — Asheville, Atlanta, Birmingham, Cincinnati, Charlotte, Chattanooga, Columbia, Greensville, Huntsville, Lexington, Louisville, Roanoke, Spartanburg and Winston-Salem — are within a 3-4 hour radius. A $280M multi-use entertainment district surrounding Neyland Stadium is also expected to open in 2028.
🔦 Community Spotlight: College Pipe
The recruiting journey can be a wild one, but College Pipe can help navigate it.
The platform is a recruiting CRM built for academies, clubs and recruiting coordinators, putting an athlete’s entire process in one place under their brand (white-label).
Coach outreach
Recruiting board
Progress tracker
College Pipe’s University Insights tool builds a shared memory of every interaction an organization has with each school. The platform’s other differentiator is its user-generated data. College coaches are actively recruiting on the platform, providing real-time insights into the classes, positions, etc. they are pursuing.
As a reminder, Buying Sandlot premium community members can feature their business, product or service in an upcoming Community Spotlight. Join here.
🤦♂️ Parents Behaving Badly: A Big League Scam
This is a wild one.
Former Blue Jays and Rays outfielder Richard Butler and his wife allegedly scammed youth baseball families in Canada, stealing about $60K in the process.
The couple is accused of collecting registration fees for their Ontario-based organization before telling parents they were shutting down due to bankruptcy and other financial issues.
But cops found there was never any bankruptcy process initiated; the couple also allegedly provided the name of an attorney to parents without his knowledge.
🔗 Youth Sports Links
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Good game.