CSC Statement on Quinnipiac University, Competitive Cheer and Title IX

The following is an official statement from Eric Pearson, Chairman of the College Sports Council on yesterday’s decision by a federal court in Connecticut that determined that competitive cheer cannot be considered a varsity sport under Title IX:

“Varsity status for competitive cheer is all about safety.

The ruling by the judge in the Quinnipiac case is very unfortunate. Schools, not the courts, should determine what sports they choose to grant varsity status. More female athletes suffer catastrophic injuries from competitive cheer than from any other women’s sport. Competitive cheer is one of the nation’s fastest growing sports for women, and in the interest of the safety of the athletes there is no logical reason not to allow schools to recognize it as a varsity sport.

The judge seemed to follow the lead of the Obama Administration, which in its Amicus brief constructed bureaucratic barriers against varsity status for competitive cheer. The Obama Administration and the judge were wrong-they should put the safety of student athletes above politics.”

Click here for a 2008 story on a study by the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research that found that over a 25-year period that cheerleading was responsible for more than 65% of all catastrophic injuries suffered by female athletes at both the high school and college level.