Just Because Cheerleading Is Hard Doesn’t Mean It’s a Sport

[obamanut2012]

Erin Gloria Ryan

Two, four, six, eight, to whom do we not allocate? Cheerleaders! At least, that's what the Second US Circuit Court has ruled in a case that pitted women's volleyball against competitive cheerleading. According to the ruling, although cheerleading is physically demanding, it doesn't qualify as a Title IX sport, and therefore a cheerleading team isn't a suitable replacement for another women's athletic team. As it should be. Replacing volleyball with competitive cheerleading as it exists today would be a huge step back for women's sports.

The girl jock-on-girl jock drama began in 2009, when Quinnipiac University announced that it was cutting its women's volleyball team and replacing the squad with a competitive cheerleading brigade (is that the proper terminology for of a group of cheerleaders? Let's say that it is). The volleyball team sued to preserve its existence, and in 2010, a federal judge ruled that under Title IX, cheerleading isn't a sport. The school, apparently dogged in its quest to be rid of the volleyball menace, appealed, and yesterday, the Second US Circuit Court handed down an almost identical ruling to the federal judge. Cheerleading isn't a sport, and cheerleaders aren't athletes — at least, not under the law.

While it may seem kind of head-scratching to call cheerleaders anything but "athletes" — their Aly Raisman-like tumbling passes and difficult pyramid maneuvers require training and can lead to the same sort of broken bones and torn ligaments one might suffer after a padless football practice — Title IX defines "sport" and "athlete" differently than a physical fitness test might. In order to be a Title IX "sport," the activity must have coaches, practices, competitions during a defined season, an organization that governs the sport and standardizes rules, and have competition as its primary goal. Competitive cheerleading is still, at its core, "cheerleading," and until very recently, it existed primarily as a way to rile the crowd up so they get good and excited to watch men's sports. Women's volleyball was never an activity that got the crowd going for men's volleyball. You can't win a gold medal in Olympic cheerleading.


<snip>


http://jezebel.com/5932885/just-because-cheerleading-is-hard-doesnt-mean-its-a-sport?utm_campaign=socialflow_jezebel_twitter&utm_source=jezebel_twitter&utm_medium=socialflow
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I agree with the ruling, but suspect others may not. My neighbor's daughter does competitive cheering, and while I recognize it is athletic, imo, it doesn't meet the definition of a sport. ESPECIALLY in this case, where it would eliminate the Women's Volleyball team.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

1. I am one of those who questions anything judged as a sport

Gymnastics, diving, ice skating, ice dancing, and even cheer leading all fall into that category.

Horses have no place in human athletic competition.

[obamanut2012]

2. I agree with you 100% on all of this

I hate the judged sports. I know refs and umps give bad calls, but it's still much, much fairer.

I also agree about the horses, although I am impressed by what athletes the horses themselves can be.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

3. it's a huge stretch for me to see chearleading as a sport

they could rename it though and maybe pass it off as team gymnastics but the linguistics of this is also highly problematic

so when a team is playing football and there is chearleading going on, essentially is the audience watching two sports?

[stevenleser]

4. Yes and thus would the cheerleaders deserve credit for part of the revenue?

That would stop the whole thing in its tracks.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

5. Actually the marching band does

In the high school my daughters went to the marching band raised more money than then entire athletic department including cheerleader. It got to the point where the principal started mandatory funds sharing.

[Gormy Cuss]

7. It's being rebranded as "acrobatics and tumbling" at some schools

in an apparent effort to distance themselves from cheerleading and to become recognized as a sport. That makes it sound like a subcategory of gymnastics and in colleges where there are teams for both the court would probably count them as one women's team for the purpose of Title IX, the same way the court ruled in the Quinnipiac case that women's indoor and outdoor track teams only counted as one.

[Gormy Cuss]

6. Maybe they should eliminate a men's team to make room for that competitive cheer squad.

Did they even argue that there was a rational basis for eliminating the women's volleyball team?

I find it interesting that in spite of the rulings there's still a competitive cheerleading squad at Qunnipiac. It seems that the motivation was to spend less on women's sports.

[4th law of robotics]

8. I don't think they generally offer non-sports under the athletic department for men

so what men's team should be cut?

[Gormy Cuss]

12. I'm sorry, I don't understand the question.

The issue was meeting their Title IX obligation to offer equal opportunities to each gender. Qunnipiac tried to qualify a non-sport as one of the sports offered for women while at the same time eliminating a recognized sport. There may have been other motivations but the most obvious one is that competititive cheering provided some advantage that allowed more funding of men's sports.

[obamanut2012]

9. That's what I think, too

Volleyball costs them money, cheerleading doesn't, plus it has a bit of the "T & A" thing going on.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

10. Why would competitive cheer leading not cost the school money?

Costs would be similar to VB

[obamanut2012]

11. Because they are tied to teh football program at most schools

I asked my neighbor. So, they don't come from the general athletic fund.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. That varies from school to school

Competitive cheerleading has cost similar to volleyball or tennis, which is is say quite a bit lower than football. They include

- Coaching staff
- Uniforms
- Training facility (shared)
- Transportation
- Competition fees
- Trainers

Competitive cheerleading is not just associated with football

[obamanut2012]

14. It is usually tied to the football program funding

Which is not part of the general athletic funding. The school doesn't pay for it, a self-operating system within the system does.

[TBF]

15. Hmmm - I guess volleyball is more recognized as a sport

but as a former cheerleader I wouldn't agree. I think the tumbling involved takes as much or more energy and precision than batting a ball about ...

[Gormy Cuss]

16. As the OP states, it's not about whether cheerleading is demanding or athletic

it's about trying to substitute it for a recognized sport under Title IX. The court has said that competitive cheerleading may be heading in the direction of being a qualified sport but it isn't now. The whole point of Title IX after all is to force funding for women's athletics and if/when competitive cheerleading becomes recognized there won't be a reason for the court case.

Mostly though, I'm responding to you because the smiley is adorable.