It's official: Cheerleading is not a sport

From: http://www.courant.com/sports/college/hc-web-quinnipiac-volleyball-20100721,0,5079778.story

They buried the lede.

And, good luck getting a cheerleading mom to recognize the legal precedent.

 

But it doesn't definitively state that cheerleading isn't a sport, only that it can't be considered one for the purposes of satisfying Title IX requirements. If your state high school sports association sanctions it as a sport, this wouldn't change or override that.

 

That battle is lost. The next battle will be dance team.

 

The judges agreed that it's a spectator sport, though.

 

Oregon added competitive cheerleading instead of a legitimate (and far more costly) athletic team like crew or swimming, when it dropped wrestling and added baseball three years ago, as a clear Title IX dodge.

Ooops.

 

That won't stop the cheerleading parents from complaining about coverage, however.

 

they may take our cheerleaders, but they will never take our booooooooooooooty shakers!

 

I read the story, and I think this ruling is so narrow to fit the university's situation that it won't do the not-a-sport crowd much good.

 

Exactly. Even the pull quote in the first post says as such:

The court wouldn't have the authority to ban competitive cheerleading being marketed as a sport, or sanctioned as one by a state high school athletics association.

Any desire to not cover it (and I certainly understand why) would be better framed with arguments about relative interest or lack of space.

 

What it does is effectively end its growth intercollegiately. There is absolutely no benefit whatsoever to add this sport since it does not improve your Title IX compliance numbers.

And colleges that presently have this sport, and use its participants in compiling Title IX proportionality ratios, get hurt badly.

 

But wait, there's more:

From: http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/07/21/29019.htm

 

Sounds like the judge didn't want to hurt anybody's feelings.