The University of Oregon acrobatics and tumbling team completed a perfect regular season with a 281.30-266.275 victory over the Baylor Bears Saturday in Waco, Texas. Oregon advances to 6-0, while the Bears drop to 2-3. Oregon’s 281.30 is the third highest total in the National Collegiate Acrobatics & Tumbling Association this year. “Now we focus on the championship,” said head coach Felecia Mulkey. “We have some things to improve on. We want to keep improving until we walk off the mat the final time this year.”

Florida and Florida Gulf Coast University were facing off for an Elite Eight spot, but before the game it was all smiles in this photo of FGCU guard Sherwood Brown and a Gators cheerleader. The 15th-seeded Eagles were taking their NCAA tournament run seriously and clearly were not happy just to get to the Sweet 16, but Brown still took a second to snap a picture with the "enemy."

The best-kept secret on campus is the Oregon acrobatics and tumbling team.Head coach Felecia Mulkey has successfully guided her team to back-to-back NCATA national titles and has opened up the 2013 season leading two convincing victories over Azusa Pacific University and Baylor.

Arkansas Razorback cheerleader, Patience Beard stands out from the crowd. She radiates positive energy with her smile, but it is her zebra-print prosthetic leg that draws the most attention.

Mascots are usually known as large, fluffy costumes, but some mascots are living, breathing animals.

Mascots were designed to excite the crowd so the team can rally and push for the win. There have been mascots of all shapes and sizes, but here we look at the top ten live mascots.

#10 Uga --- University of Georgia. Uga is the English bulldog that represents Bulldog Nation. One of the campus bulldogs, Russ, was inducted as Uga IX at the start of the 2012 football season.

We found some unusual mascots that left us wondering, ‘What were they thinking?’

Mascots play a huge role cheering on game day. They were designed to bring good luck to a team, but now play an important role in building atmosphere and working with the cheerleaders to engage the crowd. Most mascots make sense, but here are ten that got us wondering who actually designed them, because we don’t think they were sports fans...

#10 Blue Blob --- Xavier University. No explanation necessary.

The long debate over cheerleading being a sport or not is coming to an end. Due to the intense training and body strength required in competitive cheerleading the NCAA has been prompted to consider two variances of cheerleading for “emerging sport” status- a move that will not only legitimize the athleticism that is required for certain aspects of cheerleading, but also help university comply with Title IX, the federal law that bans discrimination at educational institutions.

Like many college cheerleaders, Anna Watson, a 21-year-old junior at UGA, has been cheering since age 5. What makes Anna unique is that she’s physically stronger than some of the football player she cheers for. Majoring in exercise and sports science, weightlifting has become her obsession. She spends hours in the gym, morphing her 125-pound frame into 175 pounds of pure muscle-she can bench 155 pounds, squat 255, and dead lift 230. A fitness modeling agency recently offered her a $75,000 contract, but with the stipulation that she use a legal steroid to add 50 more pounds of muscle.

Cheerleader goes from Cambridge to courtside

About 136 former cheerleaders got together to do a dance routine to benefit "Susan G. Komen for the Cure" (Breast Cancer). Each time someone views the video, United Healthcare will make a $.10 donation to the Komen organization. Their goal is to get a million hits, which will lead to $100K raised. Please can you take a moment to watch the video - and, just as important, pass this link onto your network of friends, family and colleagues? It benefits a very important cause!

Thanks for helping!

Thomas Dillmann thomas@ijhana.com