I have only two words in reply: “puh-leese!”

Cheerleaders should most definately be considered a sport. They work out as hard as
other sports and support all sports yet are never given any recognition. Their budgets are
never sufficient to pay for the expenses incurred. Quinnipiac should be ashamed of the
budget they have for 40 cheerleaders. As a mom of a cheerleader I know why the
cheer budgerts are always so cheap, because it comes out of the parent’s pockets!

Cheerleading – as its name suggest – is the act of leading the audience in cheering for a team. Cheereladers are part of the audience that cheers especially hard. Yet, cheerleaders are part of the audience, not of a team. Note that some members of the audience who are not part of a formal cheerleading team may cheer hard, too (I have done that); these people are still audience. Being part of the audience does not constitute practicing a sport

Well, dancers complete complex routines, too, but this does not mean dancing is a sport.

Cheerleading absolutely should be considered a sport. There are many schools that have Cheer squads solely for the purpose of competition and they bring in a lot of recognition for their school and community. The whole cheerleading industry is growing tremendously as more and more validated competitions are evolving and as mandatory skills and training are required of it’s participants. Competative cheerleading is a grueling sport that uses all muscle groups and requires strength, endurance and precision. Many other “sports” may require some, but not all. Give the young men and women who participate in this SPORT the credit they are due. Its high time they are acknowledged for their skill and team worth.

Everyone seems to be missing the point that the university is using this ploy to enable them to discontinue support of a recognized, competitive women’s team sport. Give me a break! Are we going back to the 1950′s? What are you going to tell the volleyball players? “Go join the cheerleading squad”??

I think labels are not necessary. By main definition of sport, as in strictly for competition, then Cheer is not a sport, but with all the things cheerleaders do they are considered athletes. Cheerleaders workout as much as athletes do in college. They have set workouts and practices each week to help better their skills and strength. They have more on their plate as to be the face of the University. Cheerleaders get recognized just as much as other athletes do and a lot of the time they do their own fundraising to pay for expenses. Yes they do lead the crowd in cheers for their team, but they do it in style. Cheerleaders at the college level are like gymnasts. I know for a fact that our University requires cheerleaders to be able to tumble and they show it during games. I think that schools should just recognize Cheerleading as a sport but not use it to replace an existing sport. Students on the cheer squad are considered student athletes and by that fact Cheer is a sport.

IF established sports are being eliminated for women due to cost and this is the proposed replacement it is unacceptable. If cheerleading is not considered a sport merely because mostly women due it in cute skirts than that is also unacceptable. Cutting out women’s teams to promote cheerleading instead sends the wrong message to our young women and is not the intention of the law nor in their best interests. Yes it is a sport but it is not an okay replacement for more established women’s competivie sports, so we must classify as not being one. If their is a way to take advantage of a situation administrations will to cut costs in this economy. The point of liberal education is a well rounded education not just a vocational track pursuit.

Ramon, are you familiar with cheerleading scoring systems? They function very similarly to gymnastics scoring, with precise values for difficultly, form, and incorporation of certain skills and elements. Do you then believe gymnastics should not be a sport because it is not directly “against” someone as is football or baseball? Why do you consider “games” to be sports, but not other athletic endeavors?

I think the classification of cheerleading as a sport will help the cheerleaders in most cases to get better funding and support, so I believe it is a good idea. However, I do not think universities should get rid of other sports and then make this change to save their skins. In most situations cheerleading is co-ed anyway, so this would not help with title IX compliance.

Alex says: “Cheerleading – as its name suggest – is the act of leading the audience in cheering for a team. Cheereladers are part of the audience that cheers especially hard. Yet, cheerleaders are part of the audience, not of a team. Note that some members of the audience who are not part of a formal cheerleading team may cheer hard, too (I have done that); these people are still audience. Being part of the audience does not constitute practicing a sport.”
Do you see “audience” members throwing a girl 20 feet in the air? Does the “audience” practice 4 times a week, wake up at 5:30am for morning workouts, go to every football/basketball/volleyball game and practice twice a day on top of all that (during the whole Christmas break, mind you) to compete at Nationals?? I would LOVE to see an ordinary audience member try to cheer at a game-flips and stunts included. I just hope an ambulance would be nearby…..

For years as a cheerleader (through junior-high and high-school) I trained in: gymnastics, dance, flexibility/stretching, long-distance running, stunts, cheer, and weights. We won regional competitions. The training was serious and I still apply what I learned during my cheerleading days to my current lifestyle. As a 42 year old adult, I am much more fit, toned, flexible, and coordinated than most of the women (and men) my age who were into “official” sports as young adults. Cheerleading is a sport.

As a former cheerleader and award winning coach I say that “yes” cheerleading is a sport. Squads practice as many hours as other team, have workout sessions in the weight room outside of practice and are required to have difficult stunts as part of their programs in order to be considered for competition…these stunts do not happen if your squad is in poor physical condition. Teams do determine their outcome at competitions and without the proper training, you cannot sustain the level of energy needed to win. You also much have the team bond that all teams require to be a winning squad. Not to mention that not only are squads working towards competitions, they are also cheering at games 2, 3 even 4 nights a week, depending on the season.

Bottom line with this question is that it will forever be debated. Unfortunately because of the way teams like the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are portrayed, it has become a “sex symbol” sport…that is shameful on the part of those people that can’t see the talent behind the glamor that makes a cheerleader an athlete.

Gymnastics is a sport, but judges determine the outcome…It’s the same way with cheerleading. Skills are awarded certain point values and if you are good, you will win, plain and simple.

Come on. Everyone one knows the cheapeset way to deal with compliance issues is to add women’s bowling!!!!!

To me, cheerleading is a dance squad rather than a sport. I also agree with the federal law’s definition about sports. Otherwise, anything can become a sport.

Is cheerleading a sport? Good question. I think so. Here’s why. If curling is a sport and rhythmic gymnastics is a sport, I think cheerleading should be considered a sport, too. But why stop here… let’s ask the debate team!

No, Miguel, you are right. Gymnastics and diving are not sports either. They’re athletic endeavors where the winners are determined by subjective interpretation of style and execution. Their inclusion in the Olympics have nothing to do with their standing as sports. They’re athletic competitions. Sports are athletic endeavors where the victors are decided by scoring systems independent of opinion (Distance, Time, Points awarded by rules- not people).

Games – Chess, Poker
Hobbies – Stamp Collecting
Athletic competitions – Cheerleading, Diving, Gymnastics
Non-Athletic competition – Pageantry
Sports – Track, Field, Basketball, Water Polo, Tennis

Who cares? The association between big-time sports and universities constitutes just one of the many idiotic characteristics of our mediocre educational system–a system that is rapidly converting us into a second-world nation. Get rid of all the sports crap is what I say, and turn higher education into a government-provided service, as it is in more enlightened areas of the world.

Cheerleaders are athletic; some might claim they are athletes, some may not – both are correct. The issue is that Federal Law has interpreted cheerleading to be an ACTIVITY, not a sport. If cheerleading would become a sport it would need to be regulated like other sports. This may not be a bad thing considering the deaths and catastrophic injuries that keep occuring from throwing people in the air over hard wood floors or 3 inch mats. Personally, I dont think its a sport, but if people are being maimed and dying from participating – to save lives, sure, lets call it a sport and REGULATE it.

Note, in the SPORT of gymnastics, the mats have to be at least 6 inches thick, if not – more. Why? Because its REGULATED by a governing body concerned about its participants.

As far as universities go: The NCAA has NOT declared CHEERLEADING an emerging sport. How a university can add an ACTIVITY like cheerleading and drop an established SPORT like VB and claim they comply with Title IX is not a very intelligent claim.

http://www.livescience.com/health/080811-cheerleading-injuries.html

I think the William Lowell Putnam Competition in math definitely counts as a sport according to the definition given in this article. It has coaches (usually math professors), teams chosen through competitive exams, and a national competition, awarding first place, etc., both for individuals and teams, all published (along with the exams and the solutions to the problems). The competition, of course, is the main and only goal of the Putnam.

Cheerleading should be considered a sport only if the school treats it as a sport, meaning 35 to 60 percent of its events are actively competition-based. This an extremely demanding and physical activity that in competition and sanctioned practices requires the presence of medically qualified personnel, due to the risk of injuries to the participants. If a school is treating it as a competitive sport, then they are also incurring far more expenses than a cheap $50,000. budget would ever cover. The trade-off for a competitive Volleyball team and a competitive Chearleading team should be much more even in the per team and per person categories. A school must not think highly of its sporting students if they are looking to cheat the students out of competitive equity. In regards to the personal costs that a family must bear (uniforms, training gear, doctors care for minor and major injuries, etc.) that few other “sports” participant must bear on the competitive level, competitive cheerleaders have paid and are paying their price have it qualified as a sport.

Working for an athletic department and dealing with all sports and their budgets I can confidently say that cheerleading is a sport. You can’t compare it to Band. These men and women have to follow the same rules as those who participate in all of the other sports programs. They have to make the grade requirement for most colleges, they have a strict workout regimen, continuous practices and the stunts that they do require a lot of skill in order to keep themselves and their teammates safe. They assume a great risk as one of the most common injuries in cheerleading is a head injury. In their sport they can tear their ACL, dislocate their shoulders or break their back just as easily as those who participate in full contact sports such as wrestling or football, only they have no protective equipment on.

If you watch any sport related television, you will find that Poker Tournaments as well as Competitive Eating Tournaments are considered sports. So, why not cheerleading?!? Its more athletic than poker and eating!!!!!!

Women’s Bowling and Competitive Eating do make better sense for meeting Title IX requirements and saves a lot more money.
But I really think, to end this controversy, let’s make the new sport of Swim-Tackle Cheerleading.
Cheerleaders perform their competitive routines/stunts, while running down a football field and trying to avoid getting tackled by women swimmers in bikinis. They gain points every 10 yards or 30 seconds without being tackled or by thowing the perfect “10″ body block to a swimmer without dropping the point girl who is also carrying a football. Of course there would be no protective gear, as in cheerleading right now.
I could even see it in the Olympics, some day, or at least as another Vince McMann SPORT (he’s the billionaire Pro-Wrestling magnate).

The original article is quite clear about the motivations behind redefining cheerleading as a “sport”: to spend less money on women’s sports. That undermines the original intention of Title IX, which was invented to give women an equal opportunity to participate in sports: universities have long preferred to continue with the practice of spending lavishly on men’s sports, partly to bring in money from alums; traditionally women don’t make as much money as men anyway, so from a fundraising perspective, that has just made sense, and though of course times have changed, those who would be just as glad if they didn’t are going to cling to the old ways and try to conceal the need for continuing improvement in gender equality. Cheerleading might be best defined as a set of public rituals and spectacles supporting MALE dominance in sports, and involving various acrobatic stunts, traditionally and most frequently performed by women deemed to be highly attractive in patriarchal terms, in the interest of expressing symbolic support for men. To call that a “sport,” to sneak it in under the radar of Title IX, is utterly wrong under the original intention of that act because its ultimate purpose is to provide an excuse to continue the traditional valuation of gender in sport: males dominant, females subordinate.

The definition is the definition. Facts are facts. The sky is blue, the grass is green no matter what kind of SPIN you put on it. Facts are NOT maleable. Facts stand alone. We are a spin culture. We no longer know what a fact even is.

You’re just making the question difficult, in terms of semantics.

Cheerleading, as it’s name implies, and as was earlier pointed out, does not refer to a sport.
Many of the arguments that say it is a sport could be applied to the marching band equally,
but when performing for the audience, it is a performance, but not a sport.

WHEN THEY ARE COMPETING, then it is a sport.
WHEN THEY ARE COMPETING, they may well have cheerleaders of their own on the sidelines.
For both a Cheering Squad and a band, when they are competing, they are in front of judges, much like gymnastics.

So, sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn’t. And a school can definitely treat the one part of the activity as a sport it is supporting and competing in and budgeting for.

What is “subordinate” about women’s sports? Its true their budgets are small, like all non-revenue sports, but whose fault is that?

If every feminist who says she or he supports women’s sport and complains bitterly about its funding actually bought a ticket, they would sell out every game. In fact these people almost never attend any sporting events female or male.

How many women’s athletic events have you actually bought a ticket to in the last year?

I am a season women’s basketball ticket holder and regularly pay to attend women’s soccer and volley ball games AND I contribute to support the Cheerleaders becasue they are great athletes and work hard.

After reading the responses, I still hold the opinion that most who believe that cheerleading is a sport are current/former cheerleaders/coaches/parents. School officials, that have finacial/political motives to make cheerleading a sport is ok with me, then call it what it is. Ulterior Motives!! That I am ok with. Again, if it were a sport, we would not have all this dialogue. It would speak for it’s self. Is a Spelling Bee a sport?

Dear KMack, If spelling bee were a sport then I don’t think you would qualify to be on the team. “Itself” NOT “It’s self” !!!!!!!!!!!

My point exactly. This is NOT a discussion about women’s sports being second class, so why did YOU bring it up and suggest that this is the “point” we should “get?”

The real point is that cheerleading is a valuable sport that takes real practice and dedication. If young women and men want to do it, we should support them and subsidize them the way we do other sports. The fact that you don’t value it is irrelevant. Many skilled young people DO value it and it is their efforts we should aid.

On YOUR suggestion that women’s sports are subordinate to men’s, I think you are clearly wrong. At my University, we spend $11 million on a losing football team because it brings in $12.5 million in revenue, not counting alumni gifts to other programs. We spend $10 million on men’s basketball because it brings in a similar $12.5 million. Only one other sport (men’s baseball) even breaks even. The $4 million we net from men’s football and basketball pays for ALL other sports, women’s and men’s. I effect, we have the efforts of the male athlete’s in football and basketball, many od whom are lower class Blacks who won’t even get a degree out of the deal, subsidizing sports for largely upper class white females. Just who is the privileged class in this equation?

I DO love women’s sports and want to see them succeed and flourish. The US actually does very well on this count compared to any other country in the world, as evidenced by the many female athletes our colleges recruit from Europe, Canada and even Africa and as evidenced by our world dominance of almost every women’s team sport.

What we need for women’s sports to to better is more ticket buyers. Compared with other academic programs and men’s non-revenue sports they are already lavishly subsidized, the only way to get more revenue and excitement into them is to get fans in the stands.

I will admit it irks me that feminists are the first ones to tell us how to run women’s athletics and the LAST ones to buy a ticket. My female colleagues will get together to watch “Sex in the City,” but a women’s sporting event, forget it. I say, if you don’t buy a ticket, you can’t complain.

“Response”: I think you became confused about what I said to begin with, perhaps because of your disliking for feminism. Reread my first post. It does not say that I believe women’s sports are “second class”–a statement which I would not make because it can be interpreted too many ways. What I did say is that cheerleading traditionally expresses female support for male sports, i.e. the subordination of women to men, and despite the presence of male cheerleaders at the college level, I stand by that assertion, partly because we find it almost impossible to imagine a reversed scenario, i.e. male cheerleaders chosen partly for their attractiveness performing to elicit support for women playing on the field. The idea of gender, complicated as it sometimes seems these days, still doesn’t allow that much flexibility: most people would find the spectacle of men chosen for their beauty cheering for women to be disturbing/comical/bizarre/”wrong.” Men seem “right” when they are the center of things and women are on the sidelines; cheerleading in its most common format reinforces that assumption.

At the same time, a kind of feminist argument–a kind I personally find unsatisfying–has emerged that asserts that cheerleading is AS MUCH a sport for women as football (or whatever) is for men and thus deserves unchallenged support as a sport. This approach, while it has its merits in at least arguing for equal access to resources, ignores the function of concepts of gender in the whole dilemma: the idea of what kind of symbolism/activity reinforces traditional beliefs about which sex is secondary to which.

You bring up a very meaningful point about the subordination of African-Americans to white interests in sports, and I agree with you there. I do think, though, that the white males who make up the most enthusiastic part of the audience for football, etc., not to mention the university administrators who finagle the budgets on all these things and who are also still primarily white male, derive as much or more privilege from the dynamic than the white females whose sports are subsidized. As for those white females being primarily upper class, I’d be interested to see the statistics on that.

As for watching “Sex and the City” instead of women’s sports–I wonder how those feminist women feel about setting up cheerleading as a cheap pseudo-sport. It would make a certain sort of sense, since “Sex and the City” and other “chick lit” pop culture texts often seem to be a cheap substitute for women’s literature.

I feel like why is it even an issue whether cheerleading is a sport or not? Why is someone taking the time to analyze this? And why do so many people get hot and bothered of whether it is or not like it really affects your life one way or the other? That is unless you were on that volleyball team that got cut. So what? One program out of thousands. And it’s the first time I have heard of it so clearly it isn’t a trend. It’s like asking if baseball is a sport. Of course it is. It is not the same type of sport but sports are so diverse. Each sport has its different way of being played. Some are mostly physical, some more mental, and some more technical. Do cheerleaders practice? Yes. Do they work out? Yes. Are they competing for something? Yes. They scream, jump, and flip for the support and dedication of the fans for their team. They are athletes too, and cheerleading is a sport.

Very few people in the world could pull off the ridiculous flips, throws and gymnastic accomplishments that these cheerleaders do. They are quite possibly some of the best athletes in the world. If someone says a requirement for a sport must be physical activity or athleticism, this certainly includes that. If someone thinks competition is a necessary aspect, cheerleaders compete constantly and all over the country. If someone bashes cheerleading for relying on judges instead of actual scores, what about boxing? Or swimming and diving and gymnastics at the Olympics? Those are all Olympic SPORTS and they rely on judges.

I could see where issues would arise when discussing the sports status of poker, spelling bees and other ridiculous “competitions” aired on ESPN2. But I fail to see how cheerleading is even in this discussion…

cheerleading is a sport because we get black eyes form cheerleading we work out like every sport we have games will cheer at the games and we have to ran and more. cheerleading is different but still a sport thank you every much

I’m pissed… are you freaking KIDDING. ME. Volleyball? Cheerleading? Anyone on my volleyball team could kick a cheerleader’s @zz, any. ****ing. I’m a volleyball player, a dancer, a fall track runner, and a figure skater. If I had to give up volleyball just for cheerleading I’d kick that head cheerleader in the face. Figure skaters can get sliced in the face with blades. Dancers get yelled at for not being expressive enough, when they’re too sad to muster up an expression. Volleyball players? You don’t even know how it feels to be forced to run until you’re going to pass out, or in track and field, the adrenaline when you get an inch away from the finish line, but the next girl behind you beats you by a second.

What kind of IDIOT compares gymnastics to cheerleading? My best friend’s little sister, AGE 8, is a gymnast and mastered her round off back handspring last year. On a four inch beam. What kind of cheerleader can do that? Olympic gymnasts can do back tucks on beams with their eyes closed, nonstop back handsprings for minutes on, and who knows what else. Dancers can toe touch easily, figure skaters can do scorpions on ice, and weight lifting isn’t even a freaking sport.

I’m outraged that this college is giving up volleyball for cheerleading, and even more, that nasty little pom pom girls are supporting it. Get a life, guys, no one gives a **ck about cheerleaders. I constantly go to football games and as far as I’ve seen, no one has ever come to see cheerleaders. No one I know has made an effort to come to competition cheerleader events, but almost everyone in my grade has been to a volleyball competition, an ice show, a dance event, or a soccer game. Half the school comes to track events to support the runners.

You see? No one cares about cheerleaders. Why would you bring down a well liked SPORT for a stupid, girly pom pom ACTIVITY? Girls don’t care, and don’t even ask about guys. Everyone knows that cheerleaders couldn’t run more than five miles at every practice, like soccer players. They couldn’t bump a ball 50 yards, or heck, even kick a ball 50 yards, like real athletes. You are an idiot to compare gymnastics to cheerleading. Why do you think so little people get to be professional gymnasts, and so many to be professional cheerleaders?

Have you ever even watched a professional volleyball game? Beautiful, and wildly interesting. You never know what will happen. How about an ball game? Who’s going to score at the last second? When are they going to score a goal? Who’s winning? How the heck did she just bump that ball across the court?

To a person above me, who cares if you get black eyes from cheerleading? When I was younger I’d play soccer with my friends and got so many nosebleeds from being knocked around. In figure skating, there are accounts of people having parts of their face sliced off with a blade while pair skating. Dancers get high kicked in the face every practice, take it from a jazz dancer, and in volleyball my teammates would often dive to get the ball only to be knocked in the face with a ball coming at them at 20 mph. So guess how many bruises I have from all of this.

I’m so enraged this would happen. Bring that volleyball back to court immediately.
Cheerleading is the dumbest thing that anyone’s ever made. Stick your pom poms up your wimpy @zzes and play real sports, girls. Sports that can give you an adrenaline rush, a second to get the ball, or a millisecond to score a point. Plus, what’s the point of calling cheerleading a sport, when basically you’re just cheering on other sports? Just as I said, call up anyone from my ice rink, my track team, my volleyball team, or my dance studio. Be prepared to get kicked in the face.

Sports: Synchronized swimming, running, basketball, soccer, softball, baseball, football, volleyball, swimming, gymnastics, figure skating, and lacrosse.

Not sports: Just cheerleading. It was actually just recently officially declared not a sport. Search it up.

Bring any cheerleading argument up. Any argument. I’ll just bring you down.

P.S. If you’re wondering how I know cheerleading is nothing compared to my sports, I can tell you that in dance camp, we did a cheerleading week, and stunting is the easiest **it I’ve ever done. Being flexible is easy for any dancer and same with tumbling. Cheering, now that is something I could handle, simply because I’m too much of an athlete to cheer for other *cough* “athletes”.