One of sports’ most debated topics: Cheerleading — is it a sport? According to a federal judge in Connecticut, it is not.
In a trial surrounding Quinnipiac University, U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill delivered the ruling on Wednesday in response to a lawsuit made by the school's volleyball program in 2009. In March of that year, Quinnipiac cut the volleyball team for budgetary reasons and replaced it with a competitive cheer program. By using competitive cheer as a replacement, Quinnipiac stated that it remained in compliance with Title IX.
Moving forward with its competitive cheer program, Quinnipiac (along with seven other universities) joined forces to develop competitive cheer as a recognized NCAA sport. The eight athletic programs formed the National Competitive Stunts and Tumbling Association to serve as the governing body for the sport.
However, Underhill expressed that it was too early in the development stages to classify competitive cheer as a sport.
"Competitive cheer may, some time in the future, qualify as a sport under Title IX," Underhill wrote, according to The Associated Press. "Today, however, the activity is still too underdeveloped and disorganized to be treated as offering genuine varsity athletic participation opportunities for students."
With the ruling, Underhill gives Quinnipiac 60 days to form a plan that will keep the volleyball program and continue compliance with Title IX. The school responded with a plan to form a women’s rugby program to ensure equal roster positions are available for male and female athletes.
However, competitive cheer will continue to persevere in its endeavors to become classified as an NCAA sport. USA Cheer executive director, Bill Seely, stated that the ruling serves a guideline to improve upon the development process.
"It's an opportunity to look at what hasn't worked and find what will work, so we are creating more opportunities for young women and not affecting other female sports," Seely said. "It's an opportunity to tweak some things."
Quinnipiac will also continue to pursue the option of developing competitive cheer as a varsity sport, but will comply with the current ruling set by the court. It was also found that the university was underreporting the roster positions for the school's male athletes and was inflating the female roster positions. However, Underhill declared Quinnipiac was improving on the matter and the 60-day planning period will give the university time to correct the issue.
