After a Federal judge ruled that cheerleading is “too underdeveloped and disorganized to be considered a sport,” some colleges started developing different models of competitive cheer in the hopes of reaching sport status under the Board of Education’s title IX requirements.

Title IX is a gender equity law passed in the 70s to create equal gender opportunities in college sports.

Two organizations have come to the plate. The National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association or NCATA and USA Cheer are both launching initiatives to present their new cheer derived sport to the NCAA and to eventually be considered an “emerging sport.”

“Our goal is to provide new opportunities for female athletes at the collegiate level. We want to establish a new sport where they truly feel that it’s utilizing their athletic skill set and to where they are recognized for the amazing abilities that they have,” says NCATA’s Executive Director, John Blake.

Their new model called Acrobatics and Tumbling is not cheerleading. According to Blake, they’ve created a new sport all together that combines a unique skill set that is used in both competitive cheer and gymnastics and puts it in a completely different format.

Blake goes on to say that there are minimal cheer scholarships out there and 500 thousand plus athletes in both gymnastics and cheer across the country. The 6 universities that are currently involved in “Acrobatics and Tumbling” have the opportunity to open up this new sport to these young athletes and be recognized at the collegiate level.

USA cheer’s model called STUNT, is also a competitive team sport, separate from cheerleading.

As per Bill Seely, it’s Executive Director, STUNT removes crowd-leading and focuses mostly on the technical and athletic components of cheer, which include the partner stunts, pyramids, basket tosses, jumps and tumbling skills.

“Traditional cheerleading their primary focus is to generate school spirit within the school. Sure it’s athletic, they have competition, it’s a sport in a general sense. But it’s focus is to develop communities, school spirit within the campus that they are serving. STUNT’s primary focus is going to be competition. And they will be highlighting all the athletic components that are in competitive cheerleading but focus solely on competing,” Seely said.

So it’s a natural progression for these athletes.  “I think it’s going to be so successful because there are so many at the high school level that are looking for an opportunity to do something and here’s another venue that will be able to help them get there” adds Seely.

USA cheer has 16 universities on board and feel their format meets the standards required. “It has the game length that is long enough, its competitive and you keep score, it has post season play and all of those elements.”

The STUNT model needs another 4 schools for a total of 20 so they can petition the NCAA.

Colleges are already viewing these new models as varsity sports, not clubs or activities.

Colleen Kaurud is the Head Coach of the Acrobatics and Tumbling Team at Pacific University in California.  She says she got involved right away and the university athletic department was behind her one hundred percent.

“All of a sudden it made sense to the athletic department because there was a governing body and compliance was being done.”

Sanja Stark is on Coach Kausrud’s Acrobatics and Tumbling Team. She’s excited about the opportunity and says it’s different from cheerleading. You have “much more opportunity to show the skills you’ve been working on rather than just a 2 1/2 minute routine. There is just more room for peoples skill and athleticism to be displayed.”

But she still feels she has to prove something.

“I’ve been telling people that I’m an athlete since I was 14 years old. We are in the weight room, we are lifting weights, we are competing with the football guys and so I’ve been trying to prove this for a long time and it’s refreshing to have an outlet to do it in.”

Both organizations will be going in front of the NCAA in the Spring.

When asked whether they’ve had contact with these two groups, the NCAA responded: “We have had conversations with both groups about how the emerging sports proposal process.” And they went on to say: “Whatever model is adopted would have to be voted on by NCAA membership to be added to the emerging sports list. It is difficult to predict what the membership would decide, and too early in the process to speculate.”

And if one of these models is adopted, Sanja Stark will finally be able to breathe. “It will be almost a moment for us to exhale after all the work we’ve been putting in.”