Quote:
Originally Posted by AGDee
If you read the article carefully, you'll see that the issue was that the competitions are not inter-collegiate but instead, sponsored by a vendor of cheerleading gear. Bottom line, there are not standings, rankings, playoffs, etc. of college cheer teams. There is not an official schedule of Team A vs. Team B, Team C vs. Team D. It is not structured as a college sport.
My other question about this is ... aren't most cheer teams in college co-ed now? They certainly were even when I was in school and when I watch college football there are men on these teams. So, how do you count that against women's volleyball even if it were structured like other sports? There are lots of male cheerleaders.
Did it occur to anybody else that the college probably spent more on fighting this in court than it would cost to run the volleyball team anyway?
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A lot of them are, but not all (Smaller schools, for example, usually can't get the guys). The schools that are going this competition-only varsity team route -- Maryland was the first to do so -- are making them all-girl. The hope, as Quinnipiac had, is that it counts as a "female" team for Title IX purposes.
And Dee, you're spot on about the "disorganization" of cheerleading in the competitive sense. We've shot ourselves in the foot with 5,000,000 cheer companies all sponsoring competitions and "national championships." There's no one overriding body.