Next year's ballroom president, Heather Rigby, thinks it should.

"Oh yes, it should happen someday," she says. "Ballroom dancing is definitely a sport. I think it's like figure skating in a lot of ways. Sure, there's an artistic aspect, and it might not look as tiring as a lot of the other sports do, but it requires hard work. You need to have a lot of stamina and skill to be able to do it well."

Card believes that the NCAA could recognize ballroom dancing within the next decade, if it has the opportunity to follow the International Olympic Committee's lead.

"The Olympics are going to be key there," she says. "Once they get the ball rolling, it will be easier to make a compelling case to the NCAA to make it an official sport. But that will definitely be the next big thing for ballroom in America."

Only time will tell if ballroom itself will be the next big thing in American sport.

The differences between "dancesport" and conventional sports are difficult to bridge, and will turn off many an average Cowboy-watching, beer guzzling armchair athlete. But Olympic recognition within the next decade seems possible, and if the event's popularity can survive the inevitable end of the swing and Latin pop crazes, there may be a future for ballroom in the NCAA.

Right alongside squash and synchronized swimming.