Acrobatics and tumbling made significant progress toward NCAA championship status, with its inaugural National Collegiate Championship potentially taking place in spring 2027.
The NCAA Committee on Women's Athletics voted last Thursday to recommend that all three divisions sponsor legislation to establish a National Collegiate Championship in acrobatics and tumbling. The recommendation is contingent on official confirmation of the sport's sponsorship and participation numbers for spring 2025 competition, which will occur over the summer.
Before the Committee on Women's Athletics can recommend a sport for NCAA championship status, at least 40 schools must sponsor it at the varsity level and meet the sport's minimum competition and participant requirements. The committee oversees the Emerging Sports for Women program, which aims to grow participation and competitive opportunities for women's sports across the NCAA.
"The advancement of acrobatics and tumbling toward National Collegiate Championship status is a powerful step forward for women's sports," said Ragean Hill, chair of the Committee on Women's Athletics and executive associate athletics director/senior woman administrator at Charlotte. "This discipline not only showcases athleticism and teamwork at the highest level but also reflects the continued commitment to expanding opportunities for female student-athletes across the country."
Acrobatics and tumbling, which became an emerging sport in August 2020, quickly grew its NCAA sponsorship from 27 schools in the 2020-21 academic year to more than 40 in 2023-24.
"The NCAA is, once again, expanding championship opportunities to female athletes nationwide," said Dr. Marion Terenzio, vice chair of the Committee on Women's Athletics and president at SUNY Cobleskill. "The addition of acrobatics and tumbling demonstrates the NCAA's commitment to its mission to grow the college sports ecosystem. I am proud that we continue to do our part in elevating women in the pursuit of athletic excellence."
Acrobatics and tumbling is a fast-paced, team-based discipline in which athletes perform a series of synchronized skills in events such as acrobatics, pyramid, toss, tumbling and team routines. Meets feature six events and typically span 90 to 120 minutes, with skills scored on difficulty and execution. The sport is currently governed by the National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association and draws participants from gymnastics, cheerleading, diving and other strength-based sports.
"The acrobatics and tumbling community is resilient, passionate and remains focused on our goal of creating opportunities for women to have the life-changing experience of being a collegiate student-athlete," said Janell Cook, executive director of the National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association. "Today, I am overwhelmed thinking of the group of coaches and administrators who took this leap of faith to create a new sport, our member institutions who have committed to adding new opportunities, and most of all, the coaches and student-athletes who have participated in and grown the sport each year."
At least 48 schools reported they planned to sponsor acrobatics and tumbling during the 2024-25 academic year. This represents continued growth from the 2023-24 academic year, which included more than 1,100 acrobatics and tumbling student-athletes across the NCAA.
"I am thrilled to see acrobatics and tumbling recommended to be a championship sport. Although this emerging sport has already given thousands of young women the opportunity to compete at the highest level, this next step will legitimize our status as a sport and create the ultimate opportunity to compete under the NCAA," said Tiffany Zieba, who finished her acrobatics and tumbling career in 2024 at Quinnipiac, where she now coaches. "All the hard work of hundreds of coaches, administrators and student-athletes is coming to fruition. This is a prime example of how perseverance, diligence and a pioneering spirit will pay off."
Following the committee's recommendation, the projected timeline to add an acrobatics and tumbling championship is:
- Each division is expected to review the recommendation and sponsor a proposal by its respective 2025-26 legislative cycle deadline.
- If sponsored, the divisions are expected to vote on the proposals during the 2026 NCAA Convention in Washington, D.C.
- The recommendation also includes establishing an NCAA Acrobatics and Tumbling Committee, which would begin its work in January 2026, to allow time to prepare for a championship in spring 2027.
- If adopted on that timeline, the first acrobatics and tumbling championship would be held in spring 2027.
If the sport is approved, acrobatics and tumbling would join the following sports to earn NCAA championship status through the Emerging Sports for Women program: rowing (1996), ice hockey (2000), water polo (2000), bowling (2003) and wrestling (2025).
In 2023-24, emerging sports accounted for over 5,000 participation opportunities for student-athletes based on NCAA sports sponsorship and participation rates data, an increase of over 30% from 2022-23.
