Baylor Acrobatics & Tumbling again ranked No. 1 as sport gains NCAA championship status
As the 2026 Baylor Acrobatics & Tumbling season begins Friday, the Bears find themselves in a familiar position — ranked as the nation’s No. 1 team in the preseason poll for the 11th straight season.
It’s no surprise; as winners of 10 straight national titles and led by the sport’s inventor and predominant coach, Felecia Mulkey, the Bears begin each year with the proverbial target on their back as the sport’s winningest team.
For a program and coach accustomed to celebrating national titles, it’s hard to imagine that anything could match what’s become an annual thrill, but everyone involved — especially Coach Fee, as she’s called by her athletes — got just that last month.
Nearly two decades after it was conceived by Mulkey and formed into a collegiate sport (with first matches occurring in 2010), Acrobatics & Tumbling was elevated to officially become an NCAA championship sport, starting next year. (You might already have thought it was an NCAA sport, given its popularity and growth nationally, but past titles have been sanctioned by the National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association.) NCAA adoption will elevate the sport even further, as other schools are expected to adopt the sport as well with that endorsement.
For Mulkey, years of blood, sweat and tears were worth it when the announcement was made.
“There was a lot of emotion,” she said. “It’s really going to be that championship experience. I’ve always said it, but them having that blue dot (the NCAA logo) on the trophy, it’ll be great for us, but it really legitimizes it for the people out there who are kind of late adopters.”
When the announcement was made, NCAA administrators highlighted Baylor’s role in bringing the sport to the forefront, with leadership from not only Mulkey, but longtime Baylor associate athletic director Nancy Post and others.
The first NCAA championship will be held in 2027, but there’s still one more to be won before that begins. The Bears pursuit of that championship begins this Friday, when they travel to Saint Leo. Their first home meet comes against the nation’s No. 2-ranked team, Oregon, on Feb. 28. Fans can attend each meet at the Ferrell Center free of charge.
Sic ’em, Baylor Acrobatics & Tumbling!
[Interested in even more A&T? Check out “Perfect 10,” a new documentary chronicling Baylor’s 10th straight national championship, now streaming on Baylor+.]