School Cheer is a discipline of cheer that involves athletes in a scholastic setting who cheer in support of other sports, most often football and basketball. School cheerleaders’ primary role is supporting the other athletic programs through leading the crowd at games and pep rallies as well as promoting school spirit overall. School cheer teams may also participate in competitions, performing a 2 1/2 minute routine composed of tumbling, stunting, pyramids, dance, and cheer segments.

College program governance varies among their institutions, from being overseen by their activities office, sports department, to even their marketing department, depending on where they have the most support and resources. The NCAA, NAIA, and many of the community and junior college associations require the USA Cheer safety training course for someone supervising a college cheer program.

The 2024-25 USA Cheer College Cheerleading Rules are available below.

SUMMARY OF CHANGES
As part of the rules process, 2024-25 is a “minor changes” year, with the intent that any changes are primarily to clarify
existing rules. Rules proposals for the 2025-26 school year can be submitted at usacheer.org/college-cheer.

• Changed “an additional spotter” to “a spotter” throughout the rules (D1, D2, D5, D6, E3, E9d, H3e) to alleviate confusion that a second spotter is needed in addition to the required spotter.
• Added that a required spotter cannot hold objects.
• Added “on the performing surface” to E4 to clarify that releasing from an inversion on the ground to a pyramid is legal.
• With the recent rules changes allowing flipping stunts and the technique required for those skills, the “must not significantly exceed the height of first contact” rule in F.1.a.1 was removed.
• Several updates were made to the Specific Surface Restrictions for basketball, volleyball, and indoor games based on updates to high school level inversions that have recently been allowed

Download the 2024-25 College Rules

Submit Rules Proposals for 2025-26