NAGWS statement related to the NCAA considering Cheerleading as an official sport

The National Association for Girls and Women in Sport's (NAGWS) mission works toward increasing opportunities for girls and women in sport. We continue to advocate for Title IX compliance and enforcement. Last year the court ruled that Quinnipiac University was out of compliance with Title IX. Part of the reason was Quinnipiac University was counting cheerleading as athletic opportunities for women. Traditionally, cheerleading has been an activity for women to be on the sideline of a sporting contest cheering for athletic participants and thus, cheerleading should not be counted as an athletic opportunity. There is a movement to create a new sport which would combine some cheerleading movements with tumbling and gymnastic movements. Perhaps this new sport would be called "stunts and tumbling." If indeed, this new sport fits the definition of sport (negligence/safety standards, facilities/equipment standards, regular competitive schedule, skilled coaches, national championship, etc.) and treated as any other sport would be then NAGWS supports this new sport.

The decision in the Quinnipiac case laid out quite clearly what the criteria are for cheerleading (AKA: stunts, etc.) for the activity to be considered a sport for Title IX compliance purposes. Because in many cases, Title IX compliance assistance is the goal for a school adding cheerleading, the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) criteria should be and legally must be the definitive standard when considering if cheerleading is a sport for determining Title IX participation compliance issues. Any determination of 'sportness' by the NCAA is not the determining factor whatsoever. NCAA decisions do not trump or determine the interpretation of federal law.

We advise the NCAA to make its decision based on the OCR criteria PLUS an honest and forthright review of the presence or absence of the appropriate maturity/ready-for-prime-time nature of cheerleading from the standpoint  of safety standards which would certainly be an issue if someone was proposing gymnastics as a new sport. Student safety and the data currently available about catastrophic injuries related to the activity of cheerleading should be the prime factor considered by the NCAA before even getting to the discussion of which association might be deemed the National Governing Body or whether cheerleading is a sport in the eyes of the NCAA.

May, 2011

Vivian Acosta, Linda Carpenter, Shawn Ladda

NAGWS