I am also a huge fan of A&T! I coach competitive cheer and we also have A&T at our university. They are very different and I think will each be successful in their own right! Meaning I dont think one will take over/overpower the other. There is more than enough interest at the youth level in cheer and gymnastics to support collegiate opportunities in both cheer, gymnastics, and A&T. Now if only more schools would get on board and more athletes/families would do their research about all of the options at the college level - there are SO many if you just look hard enough! But thats another thread :)
With regard to college cheer programs focusing on achieving a certain "look" -
I think there will always be schools that have cheer programs where that is the focus. However I also think that is dying a slow death at a lot of schools too, especially those that aren't "big name" programs. I think it is some of the biggest/most visible programs that really have kept that focus on image and that's what makes people think all of college cheer is that way. (And that works for their program and its their decision, so I'm not knocking that - to each his own.)
As far as image and being scored on it - NCA does have a "collegiate image" category that you get scored on at nationals. They specifically reference no visible tattoos, "unnatural" hair color, large bows, glitter, etc. My personal opinion - I don't like tattoos, pink hair, etc. when my athletes are competing just because I find that distracting. I don't care about that type of stuff on a daily basis, but I don't like to see it on competition day. I know that's been discussed on here previously - how distracting are tattoos really? I don't know but I'm distracted by EVERYTHING so that stuff bugs me. For me, it's less about "image" than about uniformity and a focus on the routine. I'm sure some people think that's silly and that's ok too! Like I said, to each his own.
I will also say that for parents/athletes looking at schools - you can usually sniff out the ones that are about image, size, weight, etc. VERY quickly. If you're not into that, look somewhere else - there are plenty of options. Unfortunately with cheer being so unregulated, you have to do some extra research, but you'll find a good fit if you look hard enough. I think that's one reason people gravitate toward A&T - they make it clear they're not about image, and that's awesome! However, there are plenty of cheer programs that aren't either, so if you love cheer but don't want to be used as a "marketing tool" there ARE options - you might just have to dig a little more :)
Sorry for the long post but this a topic I find so interesting, so thought I would throw my two cents in!
