As efforts continue to make acrobatics and tumbling a new NCAA collegiate sport, a recurring and important question arises that speaks to the NCAA, OCR and Title IX mission. If part of the cooperative goal between these three is to create equal and new athletic opporunities for women in college sports, at what point did it stop mattering what sport female athletes want to play?
Acrobatics and Tumbling eliminates all the stereotypical trademarks of traditional sideline cheerleading and focuses the most athletic gymnastic and acrobatic elements around a head to head true sport format that meets the standard the OCR, NCAA and Title IX define for a sport. That same skill set is used in all star, high school and college level teams throughout the US and around the world. It has become a top 10 most popular high school girls sport and is one of the fastest growing sports around the world.
At double, triple and quarduple or more times the participation and interest rates among young girls than several other NCAA sports, why is there not more support to materialize this avenue of opportunity for female athletes.
