College cheerleading combines large participation numbers with measurable differences in team structure, injury exposure, and competition formats. The figures below cover U.S. participation estimates, collegiate injury studies, emerging NCAA sports, major events, and selected 2025 finals results.
Table of contents
- College cheerleading participation
- Injury rates and injury patterns
- Catastrophic injuries and longer-term findings
- Health findings in collegiate cheerleaders
- Stunt and acrobatics and tumbling statistics
- College championship scale
- Recent collegiate competition scores
College cheerleading participation
The USA Cheer Administrators Guide estimated approximately 39,000 female college cheerleading participants and 13,000 male participants. Together, those estimates represent about 52,000 participants, although the source presents them as approximate participation figures rather than a current census.
A survey of 148 colleges found that the trend was for one cheerleading team made up of a mixture of males and females. The same USA Cheer Administrators Guide described nearly all Division I colleges as having coed cheer teams, while around half of all college cheer programs were described as coed. These figures point to a difference between the Division I pattern and the broader college-program picture.
Traditional college cheerleading selection was also described as highly competitive for female athletes. Most traditional college squads turn away three to five times the number of females they select, according to the USA Cheer Administrators Guide. That is a selection ratio description, not a national acceptance-rate estimate, so it should be read as an indication of the scale of competition around tryouts.
A major college cheer event provides another view of participation. The 2023 NCA and NDA collegiate championship drew 8,500 participants from 430 college teams and nearly 20,000 spectators. Varsity Spirit reported that the event was in its 27th year in Daytona Beach and was held from April 6 to 8, 2023. College Game Day divisions debuted in 2017 and had greatly expanded by 2023 (Varsity Spirit press release).
Injury rates and injury patterns
Several sources measure injuries differently, so the rates below should not be combined into one overall figure. An athletic exposure is the relevant participation unit in the surveillance studies, while the settings include practices, games, pep rallies, athletic events, and competitions.
The USA Cheer Administrators Guide described STUNT as having a lower injury risk than other women’s sports at the college level. Its injury data was tracked through athletic trainers and coach reporting mechanisms. The reported STUNT practice injury rate was 0.89 injuries per 1,000 athletic exposures, compared with 0.46 injuries per 1,000 athletic exposures in games.
A prospective surveillance study indexed as PubMed 19911082 reported a traditional cheer practice injury rate of 1.0 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures. The rate was 0.6 injuries per 1,000 athlete-exposures during pep rallies, 0.6 during athletic events, and 1.4 during competitions.
| Setting or format | Reported injury rate |
|---|---|
| STUNT practice | 0.89 per 1,000 athletic exposures |
| STUNT game | 0.46 per 1,000 athletic exposures |
| Traditional cheer practice | 1.0 per 1,000 athlete-exposures |
| Pep rally | 0.6 per 1,000 athlete-exposures |
| Athletic event | 0.6 per 1,000 athlete-exposures |
| Competition | 1.4 per 1,000 athlete-exposures |
The traditional cheer surveillance cohort included 9,022 cheerleaders on 412 U.S. cheerleading teams and recorded 567 injuries in one year (PubMed 19911082). Practice accounted for 83% of recorded injuries. Stunt attempts were involved in 52% of injuries, while basing or spotting one or more cheerleaders was involved in 24%.
The same study found that lower-extremity injuries accounted for 30% of recorded injuries and that strains and sprains accounted for 53%. Collegiate cheerleaders were 2.98 times more likely to sustain a concussion than cheerleaders on other team types. The confidence interval for that relative risk was 1.34 to 6.59 (PubMed 19911082).
Catastrophic injuries and longer-term findings
The NCCSIR review indexed as PubMed 14623653 reported 1.95 direct catastrophic cheer injuries per year and a rate of 0.6 injuries per 100,000 participants. Collegiate cheerleaders were reported as five times more likely than high school participants to sustain catastrophic injuries in that review.
Of 29 incidents reviewed, 27 injured cheerleaders were women. A pyramid was the most common stunt at the time of catastrophic injury, appearing in nine incidents, followed by a basket toss in eight incidents. The review included 17 severe head injuries. Those injuries resulted in 13 skull fractures and two deaths. It also included eight cervical fractures or major ligament injuries, three spinal cord contusions, and one incident involving both a head injury and a cervical fracture (PubMed 14623653).
These figures describe the incidents included in that NCCSIR review and its measurement period. They should not be interpreted as a current annual forecast or as a rate for every college cheerleading participant today.
A separate high-school survey offers context about injury experience, but it does not measure college athletes. In that survey, 61.9% of respondents had sustained one or more career injuries, while 41.3% had sustained one or more injuries during the previous year. Among injured respondents, the previous-year mean was 1.7 injuries, with a standard deviation of 1.9. The average number of missed practice or performance days was 3.4, and average cheerleading experience was 4.1 years (PubMed 15189018).
The most frequent injury site in that high-school survey was the ankle, at 24.4%. The back accounted for 16.1% of injuries, and the wrist or hand accounted for 15.6% (PubMed 15189018). Those results are useful for comparison, but the survey population should remain separate from collegiate statistics.
Health findings in collegiate cheerleaders
A systematic review indexed as PubMed 41673905 identified 372 cheerleading studies during screening, but only 14 met its inclusion criteria. The review aggregated 28,998 cheerleaders and 239,361 injuries. Participants were 96.5% female, and the mean age was 16.0 years.
Because the review included cheerleaders with a mean age of 16.0 years, its aggregate should not be treated as a college-only dataset. It does, however, show the scale of the evidence base that was examined and the importance of separating age groups when comparing results.
A collegiate female-athlete-triad study indexed as PubMed 35162393 reported several findings among collegiate cheerleaders. In that study, 52.6% demonstrated low energy availability with eating-disorder risk, while 47.4% demonstrated low energy availability without eating-disorder risk. The study also reported 52.6% self-reported menstrual dysfunction and 14% menstrual dysfunction through hormonal assessment.
No participants demonstrated low bone mineral density in that study. Overall, 47.7% presented with one Triad component, and 10.5% demonstrated two Triad components using hormonal assessments (PubMed 35162393). The self-reported and hormonal-assessment percentages use different measurement methods, so they should not be read as interchangeable estimates.
Stunt and acrobatics and tumbling statistics
The USA Cheer Administrators Guide described college STUNT as using a minimum of 12 competitions in a season once designated as an NCAA sport, with a maximum of 16 competitions. A STUNT game consists of four quarters. The first three are partner stunts, pyramids and tosses, and group jumps and tumbling; the fourth is team performance.
The NCAA announcement titled “NCAA to add four new championships” set average STUNT roster sizes at 35 student-athletes for Division I, 32 for Division II, and 20 for Division III. STUNT crossed the benchmark of 40 schools in its first year as an emerging sport in all three NCAA divisions. The NCAA said games require only existing gymnasium space, championships use a double-elimination tournament structure, and the inaugural NCAA championship was set for spring 2027.
The same NCAA announcement said 12 routines are sent out at the beginning of each STUNT season and another 12 routines roll over from the previous year. These format figures describe the planned structure of the sport and do not represent a forecast of participation or championship attendance.
Acrobatics and tumbling sponsorship grew from 27 schools in 2020–21 to more than 40 schools in 2023–24, according to the NCAA announcement. The format includes six to 10 meets per year, with two to three teams at each meet. Each meet features six events and 20 heats, and typically lasts 90 to 120 minutes.
Average acrobatics-and-tumbling roster size was 36 student-athletes in Division I, 28 in Division II, and 20 in Division III. The championship tournament features eight teams. Qualification is determined by 15 event-final heats, with five individuals or groups qualifying in each final heat. The first NCAA acrobatics-and-tumbling championship was projected for spring 2027 (NCAA to add four new championships).
NCATA reported 54 acrobatics-and-tumbling programs nationwide in 2024, including 12 at the NCAA Division I level. It said rosters typically include 35 to 45 female student-athletes. Acrobatics and tumbling was created at the collegiate level in 2009 (Canisius to add women’s acrobatics and tumbling).
College championship scale
The 2023 NCA and NDA collegiate championship’s 8,500 participants, 430 college teams, and nearly 20,000 spectators show how the college competition calendar can combine athlete participation with a large live audience (Varsity Spirit press release). Those figures apply to that specific championship held April 6–8, 2023.
The emerging-sport pathway also provides a longer institutional timeline. The NCAA emerging sports program was established in 1994. By late 2024, five sports had become championship sports through that program before women’s wrestling became the sixth (Canisius to add women’s acrobatics and tumbling).
Geographic access was another figure reported by Canisius: nine other Division II and III schools were within a six-hour driving radius of its campus. That is a local travel comparison, not a national count of nearby programs.
Recent collegiate competition scores
The 2025 UCA/UDA college cheer finals results provide a compact snapshot of one competitive division. In Cheer Division IA Coed, Alabama scored 94.8, South Florida scored 94.6, Kentucky scored 93.8, Oklahoma scored 89.6, and Central Florida scored 89.5 (Varsity TV 2025 results).
| Team | Division | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Cheer Division IA Coed | 94.8 |
| South Florida | Cheer Division IA Coed | 94.6 |
| Kentucky | Cheer Division IA Coed | 93.8 |
| Oklahoma | Cheer Division IA Coed | 89.6 |
| Central Florida | Cheer Division IA Coed | 89.5 |
Washington State finished 18th in the 2025 semifinals with a 51.1 event score (Varsity TV 2025 results). That semifinal score belongs to a different stage and ranking context from the five Cheer Division IA Coed finals scores, so the figures should be compared as reported results rather than treated as one uniform leaderboard.