U.S. District Judge Stefan R. Underhill has ruled against Quinnipiac University in a closely watched Title IX case, ruling that the university failed to provide equal athletic opportunities for its female students when in early 2009 it cut three sports, including women's volleyball, and announced plans to establish cheerleading as a new varsity sport beginning in 2009-10.
Competitive cheerleading, Underhill wrote in his opinion, "does not qualify as a varsity sport for the purposes of Title IX … Competitive cheer may, sometime in the future, qualify as a sport under Title IX; today, however, the activity is still too underdeveloped and disorganized to be treated as offering genuine varsity athletic participation opportunities for students."
While Underhill noted that the university has discontinued certain practices that had led to the June trial - manipulating sports rosters - he declared that Quinnipiac is "continuing to deflate the size of its men's rosters and inflate the size of its women's rosters."
"Although that roster management is insufficient to conclude that Quinnipiac violated Title IX as a matter of law," Underhill wrote, "it supports the ultimate conclusion that the university is not offering equal participation opportunities for its female students."
