Cheerleading is not a sport says the U.S. Court of Appeals, but is it?

Rachael Larimore: The court made the right decision. This was a cynical plan by Quinnipiac to keep the school within Title IX compliance while cutting women’s volleyball (and, incidentally, men’s golf and men’s track and field).

Competitive cheering might be an evolving sport—the Washington Post notes that the “activity” is growing more organized and has various outfits, such as the National Collegiate Acrobatics and Tumbling Association, working to make it a recognized sport. Cheerleading’s raison d’être is to root, root, root for the home team. If you take that element away, what’s all that yelling and cheering for, even during competitions?

Cheerleading is not a sport says the U.S. Court of Appeals, but is it?

This is pretty cynical. Title 9 says that colleges have to spend as much on women’s sports as on men’s. Quinnipiac is evading the rule by declaring Cheerleading a sport. Thus, they can count the money paid for it as money used for women’s sports and have more for the men.

I have no disagreement with the idea that it is tiring and a definite sign of social prestige but whether or not it’s a sport – well it seems it’s only considered a sport when you want to evade title 9 and that is not a good reason.

James Pilant

Related articles

• Just Because Cheerleading Is Hard Doesn’t Mean It’s a Sport [Sports]
• Cheerleading Not a Sport, and Other Title IX News
• US appeals court agrees Quinnipiac violated Title IX: what it did wrong