A U.S. District Court judge in Connecticut has taken a hard line against cheerleading, ruling once again that competitive cheerleading is not a sport and that Quinnipiac University must stay under a court order that makes the school keep its volleyball team.
According to the Associated Press, the suit originated from a number of volleyball players and their coach who sued the school in 2009 after saying they were going to take away the sport in favor of a competitive cheerleading team.
U.S. District Court Judge Stefan R. Underhill ruled for the players and the coach, saying that the sport had not developed enough over that time to be considered a sport that is a college sport under Title IX and said that the school had to keep the volleyball team.
In the ruling, the judge said that the cheer team, which is called "acrobatics and tumbling," and the addition of a rugby team does not "give the university's female students competitive opportunities equal to those offered to male students and he denied the school's request to lift his previous injunction."
A spokesman from the school said that the university is disappointed, but "remains committed to its long standing plans to continue expanding opportunities in women's athletics."
The judge said that while the sport has upgraded over the years, it needs more "cohesive rules of competition and a better championship format, he said two organizations compete to oversee the activity and it is not recognized by the NCAA as a sport or even an emerging sport."
"And without that recognition, acro lacks what every other varsity men's team sponsored by Quinnipiac enjoys: the chance to participate in an NCAA-sponsored championship," the judge wrote.
The sport has been the subject of ridicule over the years, but has grown in popularity and also was featured in the film "Bring It On," starring Kirsten Dunst.
"The court went on to analyze the quality of competition offered to men's teams and women's teams, and found that women at Quinnipiac were not, on the whole, provided with competitive opportunities equivalent to those provided to men," he said. "This is one of very few, if not the only, court decisions to address this particular aspect of Title IX's requirements."
