A Kansas University cheerleader is among the nine KU students featured in Playboy magazine’s “Girls of the Big 12” edition.

But school officials say they’re OK with that and Lacey Baxter will remain on the cheerleading squad.

Baxter, who posed for the shot before trying out and making the cheerleading team, said she’s proud of her appearance in the magazine, but that she had some concern that the photo would get her kicked off the squad once it was published.

“I think it’s OK because I’m fully clothed,” Baxter said. “I’d never do nude.”

Baxter, a Free State High School graduate, is pictured in a tug-of-war with mostly topless women in a two-page photo.

She is wearing a bikini and standing behind a pennant in the photo.

Baxter is described briefly as “Lacy Lynn, a Jayhawks cheerleader and Fruit Roll-Ups fiend.”

“I don’t think this crosses the line,” Associate Athletic Director Jim Marchiony said. “We would prefer that the picture not be in the magazine, but (there’s) nothing we can do about that.”

Marchiony said the policy manual for cheerleaders states they must conduct themselves in a way that upholds the character, traditions, integrity and spirit of the university.

“I don’t know if it’s against policy,” he said of Baxter’s appearance in the magazine. “My guess is she isn’t the first cheerleader to appear in Playboy. My guess is she won’t be the last.”

Spirit Squad Coordinator Cathy “Cat” Jarzemkoski said she believed Marchiony said all that needs to be said.

Playboy came to town in April as it made its rounds of the Big 12, interviewing young women for the college pictorials.

Baxter, whose sister sent in her photos, said she was called by Playboy when another woman backed out. She said she wouldn’t have posed had she been a KU cheerleader at the time. But she did join in the shoot because she felt it was a good opportunity and an experience that she could look back on when she’s older.

Baxter said she declined to take her top off.

“I think privates are for private times,” she said.

Baxter’s father, Tim Baxter, said he had reservations about his daughter appearing in the magazine as any father would, but he gave his blessing when he learned she would pose in a swimsuit. He said his daughter has some hopes for one day being a fitness model.

“Anything to enhance her resume, I was all for,” he said.

Playboy publicist Theresa Hennessey said the magazine is more mainstream than some people may think and it’s not as big a deal to pose as it once was.

“It’s not as taboo as it once might have been,” Hennessey said.