Fed'l Judge Says Cheerleading Isn't a Sport Under Title IX, Points to 'Roster Manipulation'
Deciding a closely watched case challenging the way that one university attempts to comply with federal requirements concerning gender equality in college sports programs, a federal judge has determined that cheerleading is not a competitive sport.
In today’s written decision (PDF) explaining his declaratory judgment in the Bridgeport, Conn., case, U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill found Quinnipiac University had failed to provide equivalent athletic opportunities to male and female athletes. He gave the institution 60 days to come up with a plan for complying with the obligations imposed by Title IX on colleges that receive federal funding.
He also pointed to “roster manipulation” by Quinnipiac, indicating that the school will have to change its practice of counting female athletes multiple times to inflate the group’s numbers while simultaneously counting male athletes in a manner intended to keep their numbers low.
The suit was brought by female volleyball players after the university announced plans to cut their team; Underhill’s ruling requires Quinnipiac to continue the women’s volleyball team for at least the 2010-2011 season.
The college had contended that its largely female competitive cheerleading team qualified as a sport for Title IX purposes, but the judge didn’t find that argument persuasive:
“Competitive cheer may, sometime 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,” he wrote.
The university offered a limited response to the ruling, reports the Associated Press, saying in a written statement that it intends to establish a women’s rugby team:
“We will continue to press for competitive cheer to become an officially recognized varsity sport in the future. Consistent with our long-standing plans to expand opportunities in women’s athletics, the university intends to add women’s rugby as a varsity sport beginning in the 2011-2012 academic year.”
Articles by the Connecticut Post and the Hartford Courant provide additional details.
Earlier coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Title IX Trial to Decide: Is Cheerleading a Sport?”
