NFL to sponsor intramural flag football

Nestle has done it. So has Mentadent. Butterfinger too.

Now it’s the National Football League’s turn.

The NFL signed on recently to sponsor 32 of the largest intramural flag football programs in the country, including Boston University’s, according to Chris Daigle, assistant coordinator of intramural and club sports.

When Campus Concepts, a company that had been sponsoring intramural flag football for the past few years, could not meet financial obligations, intramural departments around the country had to begin to look for other sponsors.

The National Intramural Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) went on a search, bringing the possible benefits of sponsorship to the National Football League. Officials from the NFL apparently liked the prospect of having their name on major college campuses around the country and agreed to provide supplies to intramural flag football programs.

Though no cash currently goes directly to schools, cones for yard markers, new flags and jerseys are some of the possible perks. An end of the year “bash” and the return of regional tournaments are also in the works.

“The NFL, as a sponsor, has given NIRSA the money and the supplies needed the run the program,” Daigle said.

Although Daigle said the BU flag football program would not have suffered all that much if the NFL had not stepped up to the plate, he said that having such a visible sponsor in a town like Boston will help promote the program.

“I think the NFL thought it was a good way for them to get the NFL name out there and to get more people involved,” Daigle said. “On a lot of campuses, there is a men’s division, a women’s division and a co-rec division, so it might be a good way for them to get the NFL name out to women to get them more excited about the upcoming football season.”

Daigle said he expects around the same 500 students and people affiliated with the University play flag football each year.

He also said BU was one of the only colleges in the Northeast to be sponsored. Such schools like Boston College were not sponsored because of weak facilities or not enough interest in the program.

“Originally, they were going to go with 100 schools,” Daigle said. “But they decided that since it was the first year and a pilot program, they wanted to stick with major universities that either had strong flag football programs, or in major markets with NFL teams.

“Hopefully, this will be something that goes well this year and the NFL decides to stay on board and do it again next year, and the program just gets bigger and bigger.”