Women have long been excluded from the world of professional sports — from not being allowed to run in the Olympic marathon until 1984 to the NCAA not recognizing women-dominated sports to this day. Despite Title IX prohibiting sex discrimination in educational athletics, decades of demanding equal pay and the highest number of women participating in sports ever, women are still only represented in about 5% of sports coverage and face inequitable pay compared to their male peers. These disparities are largely attributable to the fact that women, as well as sports dominated by women, are not taken seriously. The NCAA’s lack of recognition for popular female-dominated sports — specifically cheer and dance — only perpetuates these stereotypes and inequities.
Cheerleading was a male-only activity until the 1940s when college-aged men were drafted for World War II and women began to take up spots in the sport. By the 1950s, female participation in sports, including cheer, began to grow. In response to the sport no longer being male-dominated, colleges started to discourage men’s participation in cheer and dismissed it as “solely a feminine occupation.” Its legitimacy as a sport has been questioned ever since.
The NCAA defines a sport as “an institutional activity, sponsored at the varsity or club level, involving physical exertion for competition against teams or individuals within an intercollegiate competition structure… [that operates] under standardized rules with rating/scoring systems ratified by at least one official regulatory agency and/or governing body.” Historically, competitive cheer and dance teams fell short of being recognized by the NCAA because sidelining at games meant that these teams did not exist for the sole purpose of competing. The 2012 federal court ruling in Biediger v. Quinnipiac University reinforced the stance that varsity cheer must be “better organized and defined” before it could be considered for recognition as an official sport.
Within the past decade, competitive dance and cheer has quickly developed. Over 3 million people in the United States participate in competitive cheer at various levels, 97% of those being women. No longer confined to the sidelines at games, cheer and dance teams now have competitions judged based on athleticism and difficulty. Organizations such as the Universal Cheerleaders Association, the Universal Dance Association, the National Cheer Alliance and the National Dance Alliance have implemented formal scoring systems strictly structured around creativity, execution and technical skills, as well as further regulations to precisely judge a sport that is performative and artistic at its core. UCA and UDA host national events with thousands of athletes representing over 182 schools, drawing in huge audiences in person and through online streaming. The growing prestige of the UDA’s national events has earned it the nickname of the “Super Bowl” of college dance.
Heightened competitiveness in dance has put greater demands on these athletes. College dance and cheer teams must train just as intensely as any other sports team, including weight training, cardio and conditioning on top of scheduled practices. Judges and coaches are also demanding more challenging skills and tricks from athletes so teams can keep up with growing competition. These teams bring championships and national recognition to their respective universities, but still aren’t counted as a sport by the NCAA.
Though dance and cheer are often not considered rigorous athletics, they are frequently more demanding and dangerous than other, often male-dominated, sports. Competitive cheerleading has one of the highest injury rates of any sport, with catastrophic injuries occurring at higher rates than baseball, soccer and basketball.
This is not only a matter of recognition, their lack of official status has financial consequences. The NCAA allocates nearly $3.5 billion in athletic scholarships every year. Only when recognized as an official sport can Division I and Division II teams recruit athletes with NCAA scholarships. Currently, cheer and dance teams do not receive any scholarships from the NCAA and get the same level of funding as club sports, which typically do not compete at the national level. As a result, cheer and dance programs depend on fundraising to cover competition fees, travel costs, uniforms and even coaches’ salaries. If fundraising goals are not met, individual athletes may even have to pay out of pocket to continue competing. Athletes often find themselves denied access to university programs meant for student-athletes because of their lack of NCAA status, such as cheerleaders at Louisiana State University who were excluded from athletic meals.
Dismissing women-dominated sports is not just an issue of semantics, but it actively harms athletes involved. It limits their access to scholarships and resources that allow them to compete safely at the highest level. Recognition from the NCAA would not only legitimize cheer and dance in colleges across the country, but would also make sure that female athletes are treated equally. If the NCAA was truly committed to gender equality in the realm of sports, proper recognition and funding would be allocated to women-dominated sports.
WSN’s Opinion section strives to publish ideas worth discussing. The views presented in the Opinion section are solely the views of the writer.
Contact Serin Lee at [email protected].
