Campus Recreation is counting down to the launch of its 2011 Intramural sports season, and flag football will be one of the headline sports to kick it off.

There will be plenty of changes in intramural flag football for this season to both expand and cater to the students to keep up with its high demand.

“We had to push our program back a week this year, so it’s going to start next week after Labor Day,” Shane Ferrara , intramural director of student programming, said. “The 11th will be the first day of play. We’ve added more divisions and more teams this year. It’s the same divisions as always, but just more teams. We have more times available and we’re doing Sunday programming now too, which is a new thing. “

One of the major changes coming is the division of the intramural program between an A and B league to accommodate the different levels of competition among the students.

“We actually have an A and a B league in our co-rec and our men’s league,” Farrar said. “The A league is more competitive and the B league is more recreational, so we’re giving people more options to play how they want to play.”

The playoff format will also be experiencing an overhaul so students can choose when they want to play.

“The only thing that’s changed with the playoffs is that we’re going to be doing playoff draws this year,” Ferarra said. “At the end of the season instead of being automatically seeded, you get to come and choose where you want to play.”

Another change coming to the program is its move from upper Miller Fields to the lower fields due to the recent acquisition of the upper fields by the university’s athletic department. Despite this, the program will not be affected in the same manner that club sports will be.

“We are only on lower field this year, upper fields is now owned by the athletics department,” Ferrara said. “We won’t be moving to Method, that’s just for club sports. Intramural will stay on Miller Fields.”

For Catherine Northington , a sophomore in polymer and color chemistry, this will be her first season playing flag football. She has played other intramural sports in the past, but she doesn’t believe that the change in location will make a huge difference.

“I don’t think it’s going to affect the way we play,” Northington said. “it’s not where you play its how you play. we’ll just play like we normally do.”

Even though it will be her team, the Ninja Chickens’, first season, they have plenty of confidence going forward.

“It’s our first year playing flag football,” Northington said. “We have played other intramural sports before. My team and I have played soccer and softball before so we’re excited to try something. We have a lot of team chemistry and we’ve known each other for a while. We’re hoping we do very well.”