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After Quinnipiac: Is Cheerleading a Sport?
Is it legal to count cheerleading as a varsity sport?
Following the court's decision in the Quinnipiac Title IX lawsuit most athletic administrators are still wondering if it is legal to count cheerleading as a varsity sport. The short answer is no, at least not yet.
In 2003 the University of Maryland became one of the first universities in the country to elevate its cheerleading squad to varsity status. This move opened the debate as to whether or not cheerleading, dance teams, and drill teams should be considered varsity sports for the purposes of Title IX compliance. Critics of this action argue that promoting cheerleading to a varsity sport is merely a way for institutions to circumvent the intended purpose of Title IX. Supporters of the action argue that cheerleading or competitive cheer has evolved over the years to become a nationally competitive sport that involves strength, gymnastics and teamwork.
Today competitive cheer more closely resembles the sport of gymnastics than the sideline cheering of the past. This change has been reflected in the Office of Civil Rights gradually softening its position on this issue. In 2000 OCR issued a statement that said that while there was still a presumption that cheerleading was not a sport that determinations would be made on a case-by-case basis.
With the budget constraints most institutions are now facing, the idea of starting new sports is often financially untenable; and, yet, the institution must comply with Title IX requirements. Like Quinnipiac has done, more and more institutions are going to be looking at cheerleading as a natural team to elevate to varsity status.
An activity may be considered a sport under Title IX if it has coaches, practices, competitions during a defined season, and a governing organization. Competition must be its primary goal and not merely exist to support other athletic teams. To qualify, a squad must meet five criteria promulgated by the Office of Civil Rights:
- Selection of squad members must be based largely on factors related to athletic ability.
- The squad’s activity must have as a primary purpose the preparation for and participation in athletic competition against other, similar teams.
- The squad must prepare for and participate in competition in the same way other teams in the athletic program do, for example by conducting tryouts, being coached, practicing regularly, and being scheduled regularly for competitions.
- National, state, and conference level championship competitions must exist for the squad’s activity.
- The squad’s activity must be administered by an athletics department.
These guidelines appear to point in the direction of allowing competitive cheer to be defined as a sport, and to be considered a varsity sport for Title IX purposes; and, the decision in Quinnipiac did not disagree with these requirements. Rather, the court believed that at this time competitive cheer at Quinnipiac did not meet these standards. If your institution is considering moving cheerleading to varsity status remember that in addition to meeting the OCR criteria outlined above, the competitive cheer program would also need to have full access to all of the support services available to other varsity teams such as academic advising, strength and conditioning, sports information, training room, marketing and promotions, and locker rooms. Finally, the competition-oriented priority of the competitive cheer program should not be undermined by having the squad cheer at other teams’ games. In fact, it would be best if the traditional cheerleading team continued to exist and cheered at games, while the competitive cheer team concentrated solely on competition.