Judge: Cheerleading is not a sport under Title IX

[pokerfan]

By Tanya Roth on July 22, 2010

Let's give a cheer for Title IX, the big winner in a July 21 decision by a federal district court judge in Connecticut. Judge Stefan Underhill has proclaimed competitive cheerleading not a sport for purposes of Title IX and the defendant, Quinnipiac University, will have to reinstate its women's volleyball team instead of cutting it for a cheer squad.

http://blogs.findlaw.com/law_and_life/2010/07/yeah-cheerleading-not-a-sport-under-title-ix.html">Read the rest

Good decision, IMO. It sounds like it was a cynical ploy by the university to cheat their way around Title IX.

[Richardo]

1. Absolutely right.

Competitive cheering - I'll never get it.

[uncommon]

15. Have you ever watched the national cheerleading competitions? They are intensely

athletic.

[Richardo]

36. So is a circus act - it's still not a sport.

And the yelling when there's nothing to 'cheer' has always struck me as absurd.

Maybe if they called it "Coed Team Gymnastics" and knocked out the whole 'cheer' thing (and the uniforms) it would make more sense. Wear athletic attire if you want it to be a sport, I would say.

But what do I know, I'm a geez.

[roguevalley]

49. they are but they aren't a sport that a school has to provide for

girls to make parity with boys. cheerleading is a ploy to offer a 'sport'
to girls that gets them off the hook for spending equal money for real sports for girls. cheerleading is an amalgem of a lot of things that are athletic and difficult but it isn't girls baseball, hockey, football, etc and that is why it was declared a sport.

[PBS Poll-435]

2. K&R

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. We're an athletic activity in flux. Our roots come from a place of supporting other teams, but

we've evolved to a competitive team activity in our own right.

As of right now USA Cheer is working on retooling and renaming the next phase so that it will fit under Title IX: http://usacheer.net/Content.aspx/News/Response%20from%20USA%20Cheer%20Executive%20Director%20to%20the%20Decision%20that%20Cheerleading%20is%20Not%20a%20Sport.xml

[KamaAina]

33. Any chance of getting it recognized by the NCAA?

That way this sort of thing wouldn't happen anymore.

[GreenPartyVoter]

That's one of the things they are working on. I am very curious to see what it will

look like in terms of format, and also logistics. If competitive teams have to compete multiple times during a season and not just at nationals, that could require some extra funding, especially if they have any great amount of traveling to do. Definitely will take some work to figure out!

[KamaAina]

37. Perhaps they could compete at meets involving multiple schools

following the model of track and field and golf.

[GreenPartyVoter]

39. Yeah, like gymnastics have meets for specific regional conferences?

[iamthebandfanman]

4. while it was a ploy for money, i dont agree its not a sport

i think anybody whos actually watched a team practice for a competition would know that.

[CBR]

7. I agree. I never was a cheerleader but I watch the local

university's team practice while I am at the gym. Those women and men are doing gymnastics.

[rocktivity]

10. In college, there were blocks of time when you coudn't use the gymn's weight rooms

because they booked for both the varsity teams AND their cheerleaders!

Cheerleaders aren't athletes--I beg your pardon?


rocktivity

[Johonny]

34. the ruling wasn't that it was not a sport

simply that it does not qualify to the standards of what Title IX considers a sport.

"Competitive cheer may, some time in the future, qualify as a sport under Title IX," U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill wrote in his decision. "Today, however, the activity is still too underdeveloped and disorganized to be treated as offering genuine varsity athletic participation opportunities for students."

The AP reports that to qualify as a sport, an activity must have several characteristics: coaches, practices, competitions during a defined season and a governing organization. The activity also must have competition as its primary goal.

Overall I think it's clear that if they were saving money it probably wasn't a qualified sport. I mean is there that much more infrastructure need to play volleyball over a full cheer squad? Where would the savings come from other than less travel due to lack of participation opportunities?

[pokerfan]

47. It has to be the travel

NCAA Volleyball has a 30 match season (two matches per week) followed by a 64 team tournament.

[FSogol]

5. How expensive can a volleyball program be?

The volleyball uniforms are cheaper than cheer leader uniforms, the injuries are about the same, the travel is about the same, balls and net vs pom poms? :shrug: How much of a cost saving would that be?

[Johonny]

35. well if there is no program and schedule

then you travel a lot less and have less organized events. Your squad simply performs at other sporting events and travels when those team travel (or not). So the savings is probably due to lack of opportunity just like the Judge ruled.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[snooper2]

8. You think this is a "sport"...

honestly...watch the video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuvRRPq-AtY

[FooshIt]

9. wow you can find one video

search a little harder

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. Not everyone can throw a standing full, pull a bow and arrow, or base a rewind to single cupie. They

are working on attaining sport status not just at the collegiate level but at the international one too, so they can apply for a spot in the Olympics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D66OdvMijG8

Just because it's not your cup of tea doesn't mean it isn't hard.

[snooper2]

16. Um, isn't there something called gymnastics that already covers this

IMHO

(Was one of two guys in gymnastics for about 4 years growing up- lots of fun, and already in Olympics in many forms :) )

[uncommon]

18. This is team gymnastics.

And it is different.

[snooper2]

25. Um, they already have team gymnastics

Why do you think they all wear the same uniform at the Olympics :rofl:

edit to add video of real sport...these girls are pretty badass

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg9dMpsf7kA

[uncommon]

29. They have gymnastics teams, but they don't perform *as* a team. nt

[snooper2]

42. Yes, they do perform as a "team" and rely on each other

but we will just agree to disagree...

Boom chaka chaka shake right
Boom chaka chaka shake left
Boom chaka chaka shake right
boom chaka chaka shake left
arm-arm push-push down! :P

[iamthebandfanman]

52. youre pathetic

maybe i should go find a video of a cowboys player doing something goofy to prove the sport is a joke?


theres more risk of injury in cheerleading than there is in football.


falling from a toss is over double the impact of getting hit by a football player in gear.

[GreenPartyVoter]

27. Heh. Most gymnasts get really mad when people compare the two. It's more

similar to team acro, but there's a difference between a 4 or 5 person squad and one with 20 or 36. The logistics involved in choreography are pretty intense. Also cheer involves a whole different style of dance than artistic.

[uncommon]

14. You think this isn't?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppxm67wsNNU

[madmax]

21. Hey

The former pResident was a cheerleader. :evilgrin: :bounce: :rofl:

[KamaAina]

28. So does he have to give back his varsity letter?

:P

[SunnySong]

11. I fully support womans volleyball.

But sorry if cheerleading isn't a sport I can think of a lot other sports in college that also should be cut.

[uncommon]

12. It really depends. Some cheerleading teams are very competitive and athletic.

But I can see this being a way to siphon money to football teams.

Either way, most female cheerleaders lose out. Too bad.

[Lance_Boyle]

17. Aren't most competitive cheer teams co-ed? /nt

[uncommon]

20. Yes.

[Lance_Boyle]

22. So how was it ever a Title IX issue in the first place?

Seems like both genders are equally "deprived" by cheer not being a varsity sport. :shrug:

[uncommon]

24. All sport funding is a Title IX issue, is it not?

And regardless, it should be considered a sport and funded. But the funding should go to the team, not the team they are cheering for.

[Lance_Boyle]

44. Sports funding decisions are themselves competitive since Title IX - should be televised

But there shouldn't be any issue on this one since it's a co-ed sport - no single-gender sport is impacted by the decision whether or not to fund a mixed-gender sport. Title IX does not come into play for mixed-gender sports.

In all seriousness, though, aren't competitive cheer squads usually distinct from those that cheer at other varsity sporting events? If not, I can see a problem with this. Nobody funds a football team to go and tackle each other on the sidelines of a lacrosse game, or a baseball team to practice pitching at a swim meet. Cheer seems to have two components if mixed in this way (competitive and "support" being the same team). I do not see any situation in which the "support" role should be funded as a varsity sport.

[GreenPartyVoter]

60. Actually, about half the states in the country acknowledge HS cheer as a sport, which has

not only had a positive impact such as equal funding for cheer, it's also had some negative ones. If I understand correctly, Michigan cheer competitions used to be co-ed but now young men are no longer allowed to participate.

As to the issue of competitive cheer vs sideline cheer, no for the most part they are still the same teams. We were slowly branching out into competition only teams, such as the University of Maryland has, but again that's a female only team.

Competition cheer (or whatever it will be called in the future) should be acknowledged and restructured as a sport for both equality and safety reasons. I don't think it's right for guys to be disallowed to participate in the name of making things more equal for women. All we've done in that case is reverse their positions in the inequality equation. :( So perhaps it is not through Title IX that this situation needs to be addressed?

[KamaAina]

30. Because they wanted to drop women's volleyball to add cheer

odd that this would happen at Quinnipiac, which has benefited from some sizable donations from Ed McMahon, of "Tonight Show" and Publishers Clearing House fame, whose daughter went there.

[Lance_Boyle]

45. Ah, so they sought to remove a women's sport to make room for a co-ed sport?

That would be problematic for the school. Seems the courts agreed.

[GreenPartyVoter]

54. No, actually those particular cheer teams (the Title IX ones) are all-female.

[GreenPartyVoter]

31. Depends on the school. Some have co-ed only teams. Some have multiple cheer teams, like

University of Louisville.

[Obamanaut]

19. When one can watch two team members pick up a third one and fling

her (usually it is a female member being flung) across the rest of the team to be caught by two others - who could not see the flingers - that is a great display of strength, athletic ability, trust in teammates. That is sport!

[uncommon]

23. Amen!

[yella_dawg]

26. I've got a stunning idea.

Let's fund academics ahead of sports departments.

[mike r]

32. Hmm... Don't cheerleaders sweat?

[LanternWaste]

38. Looking at the first (and most relevant) definition of Sport...

Looking at the first (and most relevant) definition of Sport it would appear Cheerleading is a sport.

"an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature, as racing, baseball, tennis, golf, bowling, wrestling, boxing, hunting, fishing, etc."

[uncommon]

41. It's definitely more of a sport than bowling and fishing. Ugh. nt

[snooper2]

43. We can agree on that one

:hi:

[Oregone]

40. I think it is a sport

I guess Im nuts or something.

[LostinVA]

46. It is very athletic, but not a sport AS IT IS NOW

My niece was a high-level cheerleader, and it is insanely hard, but, like ballet, it isn't a sport, per se, although it may be in the future. It needs to be handled like gymnastics and not have the cheerleaders at football games, etc.

This was just a way to screw over female athletes, imo.

[LWolf]

48. It's a sport.

A sport I personally don't care for, but it's a sport.

What are sports? Vehicles for physical activity, competition, and, in many cases, teamwork. All of those apply to cheerleading.

Despite the fact that I find the whole thing a little demeaning. But then, there are many, many sports that I find uninteresting, and some, that involve abusive treatment of animals, that are criminal, or should be criminal.

If a sport has to be cut because of budget issues, I'd vote for cutting cheer leading first, and leaving the sports they are cheering for in place.

[NeedleCast]

50. Good Decision

First for the reason mentioned in OP and second because it's not a sport. Competative cheerleading is a contest. There's a difference, at least in my book. That's not to insult the athleticism required, I certianly couldn't do it. I have no question that it requires intense athleticism and endurance.

[alarimer]

51. Yes this was just an attempt to skirt the rules.

Cheerleading may be athletic but it is not a sport in the sense that other sports are. They mainly exist to support other, mostly male, sports.

[CTyankee]

57. Well, thank you! I can't believe anyone believes otherwise. This was dodge

by Quinnipiac. It was disingenuous. No, it was a big lie. The school did nothing to elevate cheerleading per se. It was very self serving.

[foxfeet]

53. This ruling will kill Sue Sylvester.

:P

[GreenPartyVoter]

55. LOL

[fishwax]

56. good decision

It's not that competitive cheer isn't athletic. But cheer doesn't have the organization/infrastructure to qualify as a sport under Title IX. Someday, perhaps, it will. But in the meantime, schools can't cut women's sports and pretend that offering competitive cheer makes up for it.

[Ichingcarpenter]

58. This is a message from the 'most ' important people in cheerleading

They knew what it was really about!

[pokerfan]

59. Go East Lake Spartans!

This situation calls for the perfect cheer!

[Ichingcarpenter]

61. the perfect cheer!

Makes this real sport!

Man...... I finally found a 'sport' to talk about my favorite sport

CHEERLEADING!


I think if we get our ways we could even influence the news on fox

GO SPARTANS!!!!!!

[Skittles]

62. I agree

girls should be playing their own sports, not this kind of nonsense

[4_TN_TITANS]

63. Definitely not my thing, but I have to disagree with this...

Cheerleading is intensely athletic, much more so than NASCAR, sitting in a tree waiting for a deer to walk by, or tossing a line in the water. That said, the "culture" of cheerleading has always disgusted me, but I can't say it's not athletic or sporting.

[pokerfan]

64. The judge didn't say that it wasn't athletic

He didn't say that it wasn't difficult or dangerous. He said it that wasn’t organized enough to meet Title IX requirements:

"Competitive cheer may, some time in the future, qualify as a sport under Title IX. Today, however, the activity is still too underdeveloped and disorganized to be treated as offering genuine varsity athletic participation opportunities for students."