NCAA Division I Council Introduces Proposals for Stunt, Acrobatics and Tumbling National Championships

The NCAA Division I council has introduced proposals that would establish national collegiate championships for the sports of women’s stunt and women’s acrobatics and tumbling.

Should the proposals be adopted by all three NCAA divisions, championships committees would begin work in stunt and acrobatics and tumbling in January 2026, with the first championship for each sport expected to occur during the spring season in 2027.

In May of this year, the NCAA Committee on Women’s Athletics voted to recommend Divisions I, II and III sponsor legislation to add championships in the sports. One championship event for athletes across all three divisions would be held for each sport initially.

Acrobatics and tumbling became an emerging sport in 2020 and stunt received that designation in 2023. Each sport is sponsored by more than 40 schools across the three divisions, the minimum threshold for achieving championship status.

The council also introduced a proposal to add women’s flag football to the Emerging Sports for Women program. Flag football has grown in popularity at the youth sports level and will make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles. The proposal will be considered in October.

Another point of action by the council was to separate the scoring at the fencing championships to recognize teams in both men’s and women’s fencing. Currently, men’s and women’s fencing teams compete for one title and women’s only teams — which are sponsored by nine schools — are statistically unable to win a championship under the existing scoring format.

For this change to take effect, it must be supported by Divisions II and III because fencing operates as a National Collegiate Championship involving teams from all three divisions. Divisions II and III are expected to consider the proposal in July.