All-Star University Of Alabama Cheerleaders Not Getting Champion Rings Because Cheerleading Is Not A Sport

[CF1erce]

I'm from Alabama, have a husband that cheered there, and have coached many cheerleaders to go on to cheer at The University. I am so sad to see these athletes not get the honor they deserve. We have watched this program over the years build in strength and notority. It breaks my heart....I know many of these kids personally, and I know what they put into their position as a U of A cheerleader. It's more than the pep rallies, public appearances, games, and 2-a-day's...these athletes give their all on the floor, on top of being ambassadors, and I feel the University may have taken them for granted. Do I feel what we do on the floor is a "sport"? No, not really...."sports" have so many regulations and little objectivity. Are we athletes? ABSOLUTELY!! Let these kids get their RINGS!!

 

[King]

I'm from Alabama, have a husband that cheered there, and have coached many cheerleaders to go on to cheer at The University. I am so sad to see these athletes not get the honor they deserve. We have watched this program over the years build in strength and notority. It breaks my heart....I know many of these kids personally, and I know what they put into their position as a U of A cheerleader. It's more than the pep rallies, public appearances, games, and 2-a-day's...these athletes give their all on the floor, on top of being ambassadors, and I feel the University may have taken them for granted. Do I feel what we do on the floor is a "sport"? No, not really...."sports" have so many regulations and little objectivity. Are we athletes? ABSOLUTELY!! Let these kids get their RINGS!!

I Do understand the hesitation to call Cheerleading a sport. But athletic associations focus on sports and things to support those sports. Not things to support the things that support sports.

It's an all in or out thing. I Know of the hard work they all put in, but what does an AD get out of having a competitive Cheerleading team that brings the university nothing as far as a sport goes? The ADs job is to further Bama's sports team, and a Cheerleading team winning UCA ( no matter how amazing i think it is) is like a club chess team wining a chess tournament. If Bama became non-competitive tomorrow they'd still have 200 cheerleaders lining up to tryout just for the spirit part.

I take this as a sign college Cheerleading is dying.

 

[CF1erce]

I Do understand the hesitation to call Cheerleading a sport. But athletic associations focus on sports and things to support those sports. Not things to support the things that support sports.

It's an all in or out thing. I Know of the hard work they all put in, but what does an AD get out of having a competitive Cheerleading team that brings the university nothing as far as a sport goes? The ADs job is to further Bama's sports team, and a Cheerleading team winning UCA ( no matter how amazing i think it is) is like a club chess team wining a chess tournament. If Bama became non-competitive tomorrow they'd still have 200 cheerleaders lining up to tryout just for the spirit part.

I take this as a sign college Cheerleading is dying.

All valid points...still unfortunate for U of A cheerleaders, and everyone else in the collegiate boat.

 

[WuToDouble]

this is completely ridiculous, Colleges always say, we want the rings!! and I just texted my coach about this, and he's like, next year might be ground bounding for alot of schools.... college cheer is going to die soon.... i hope it'll make allstar bigger, and maybe colleges can have allstar programs lol, and then international divisions or new older divisions will get big

 

[proudpapa]

How about we just get those champions their rings...How many athletes are we talking about? How much money will it take. I pledge here and now $50 ! I don't have anyone on any of those teams, I do however know a couple of those amazing athletes and feel they should be recognized and rewarded for their efforts and accomplishments. If the schools or the administrators wont do the right thing and correct this injustice, then shall we?

 

[ztaprincess]

How about we just get those champions their rings...How many athletes are we talking about? How much money will it take. I pledge here and now $50 ! I don't have anyone on any of those teams, I do however know a couple of those amazing athletes and feel they should be recognized and rewarded for their efforts and accomplishments. If the schools or the administrators wont do the right thing and correct this injustice, then shall we?

The people making the rings will not do it because UA will not give the team permission to use their copyrighted logos. It isn't about the school paying for the rings really because I can bet most would be fine buying their own rings, but the school has to allow them to use their logos and that is what they are keeping from them.

 

[specialtpass]

After reading this I had a thought. A couple of years back FIU in Florida launched a very successful online petition when the school announced they were eliminating the cheerleading program. I think that I actually saw the original post and link here on The Fierce Board. I signed the petition and was able to make a comment. They forwarded it all to the powers that be and I believe they came out victorious.

 

[Tribeboy89]

After reading this I had a thought. A couple of years back FIU in Florida launched a very successful online petition when the school announced they were eliminating the cheerleading program. I think that I actually saw the original post and link here on The Fierce Board. I signed the petition and was able to make a comment. They forwarded it all to the powers that be and I believe they came out victorious.

Well so far the cheerleaders I have on my facebook have been getting people to send the athletic department emails and phone calls. They seem to have a huge support system in that from the students on facebook.

 

[travnation80]

After reading this I had a thought. A couple of years back FIU in Florida launched a very successful online petition when the school announced they were eliminating the cheerleading program. I think that I actually saw the original post and link here on The Fierce Board. I signed the petition and was able to make a comment. They forwarded it all to the powers that be and I believe they came out victorious.

You are correct, I am one of the FIU Cheer Coaches and it worked very well and if ESPN and CNN pick this up The University will look really really bad and its going to be over and if the Alumni get wind of this trust me the University will rethink this ASAP. Trust me I know people who played under bear bryan in the 80's there and now they are married or dating cheerleading coaches of high schools this is not a good look for the University and as an AD u are suppose to Support all aspects of Your Department. When I hear that AD's arent a fan of Cheerleaders but love the dance teams (its mostly men AD's) We all must stand up or their will be no scholarships for College Cheerleader or Support. Trust me the AD will come up with any excuse. The FIU excuse was that the insurance was to high to keep the cheerleaders but that excuse on came about when we let it hit the press and we took over national media.

 

[King]

The thing is as much as I enjoy competitive cheerleading at a collegiate level, there is no reason for an AD to want it. What benefits does it offer the university? Bama just showed that winning a cheerleading national title doesn't mean anything to them and there are probably quite a few universities that feel that way. My Alma Mater (Georgia Tech) is now non-competitive without signs of ever going competitive again.

I see a few things happening.

- Ground bounding will start to happen and spread throughout colleges. Varsity will reduce what is legally allowed to happen on the sidelines, but it will only stave off the inevitable. Sideline cheering doesn't require rewinds, baskets, standing fulls, or other things. If all cheerleaders ever did was stand tucks, halves / hands, extensions, straight cradles, and led cheers the crowd wouldn't know the difference. I give that point about 10 years before thats where we are.

- Stunt or NCATA will take off. Lost of universities will make their cheerleading teams just ground bound clubs and allow their female cheerleaders to do one of the two. While STUNT and the NCATA did not cause the shift we are going to see, they are going to speed it up. Having a STUNT or NCATA team that gives you all those female athletes for Title IX is going to become hugely attractive in a couple years when it takes hold.

- international 5/6 is about to grow a lot larger... and I mean a LOT larger. Allstar is producing copious amounts of athletes and with the new rules change to encourage boy stunting we are actually gonna produce male stunters now as well. since the males have no where to go after allstar is done AND IOC6 is now UCA style (and I think IOC5 will eventually go back to being a balanced scoresheet) these divisions are going to get huge. (which is a perfect reason for for my 3 globes given to emerging countries in international and take half to finals solution seen here: http://fierceboard.com/threads/the-fix-for-international.11904/ )

 

[yojaehs]

The thing is as much as I enjoy competitive cheerleading at a collegiate level, there is no reason for an AD to want it. What benefits does it offer the university? Bama just showed that winning a cheerleading national title doesn't mean anything to them and there are probably quite a few universities that feel that way. My Alma Mater (Georgia Tech) is now non-competitive without signs of ever going competitive again.

I see a few things happening.

- Ground bounding will start to happen and spread throughout colleges. Varsity will reduce what is legally allowed to happen on the sidelines, but it will only stave off the inevitable. Sideline cheering doesn't require rewinds, baskets, standing fulls, or other things. If all cheerleaders ever did was stand tucks, halves / hands, extensions, straight cradles, and led cheers the crowd wouldn't know the difference. I give that point about 10 years before thats where we are.

- Stunt or NCATA will take off. Lost of universities will make their cheerleading teams just ground bound clubs and allow their female cheerleaders to do one of the two. While STUNT and the NCATA did not cause the shift we are going to see, they are going to speed it up. Having a STUNT or NCATA team that gives you all those female athletes for Title IX is going to become hugely attractive in a couple years when it takes hold.

- international 5/6 is about to grow a lot larger... and I mean a LOT larger. Allstar is producing copious amounts of athletes and with the new rules change to encourage boy stunting we are actually gonna produce male stunters now as well. since the males have no where to go after allstar is done AND IOC6 is now UCA style (and I think IOC5 will eventually go back to being a balanced scoresheet) these divisions are going to get huge. (which is a perfect reason for for my 3 globes given to emerging countries in international and take half to finals solution seen here: http://fierceboard.com/threads/the-fix-for-international.11904/ )

As much as I see what you are saying and I do believe that college cheerleading IS dying, there are many benefits to an AD, its just whether or not they choose to put the time in to utilize it. I do see NCATA or Stunt taking off but. I think (unfortunately) the largest group affected will be the "coed" cheerleaders. MANY guys you see cheering in college didn't even start until they got to college. What would be the draw if NCATA/Stunt is the only thing offered and colleges are ground bound? Yes there are some guys out there that will stick it out but I don't think there will be the guys that we so often see at partner stunt comps. I hope it doesn't die and also wouldn't it be the NCAA doing the ground bound rules not Varsity?

 

[King]

As much as I see what you are saying and I do believe that college cheerleading IS dying, there are many benefits to an AD, its just whether or not they choose to put the time in to utilize it. I do see NCATA or Stunt taking off but. I think (unfortunately) the largest group affected will be the "coed" cheerleaders. MANY guys you see cheering in college didn't even start until they got to college. What would be the draw if NCATA/Stunt is the only thing offered and colleges are ground bound? Yes there are some guys out there that will stick it out but I don't think there will be the guys that we so often see at partner stunt comps. I hope it doesn't die and also wouldn't it be the NCAA doing the ground bound rules not Varsity?

I am curious what benefits to having a competitive cheerleading squad (notice I still think game supporting is a big deal, so we are just speaking of the competitive part) there are to an AD?

 

[CoachD]

One last point: The University of Louisville has been extremely successful in NCA collegiate cheerleading. So much so I remember an article on them being in the Rolling Stone for how successful they have been. When I drive up to Chicago I actually pass through Louisville. They seem like an extremely proud college town with Cards everywhere and images and pictures of all their sports teams all over the university. I looked for (cause I am a cheer geek) something somewhere while driving through that showed their most successful and winning program. I didn't see anything.

Louisville has a full page ad in their Football program with pictures of both cheer and dance Congratulating both their Cheerleading and Dance Teams on the previous year results as well as their history of National Championships. They also have painted on the sidewalk leading up to the Football stadium these accomplishments as well along with the other Sports.

There are also MANY pictures and murals of the Louisville cheerleaders in the new arena - on all the levels and in the conference rooms as well.

 

[King]

There are also MANY pictures and murals of the Louisville cheerleaders in the new arena - on all the levels and in the conference rooms as well.

Good to see there is something. I never expected there to be pictures of you guys performing and competing (kinda what U of L is known for) hanging up. Do you guys have ones up from all the years each teams have won? Outside at Daytona?

I am only going off of what I see when I drive through (I counted an image or picture of every major sport I could think of) and saw none of cheerleading from the road.

 

[Mr.Kevin]

My daughters cheer/cheered for UCF. One of them has a National Championship ring. I cannot imagine how bitter that moment would have become had UCF acted the way that UA is now. At UCF, the cheer team gets introduced as they run on to the field at home football games. That's the way it should be for ALL collegiate teams.

I was at college nationals again this year to watch my last one as an athlete's father (UCF took 3rd behind UA and UK). The teams were ALL really amazing and the difference between UA and UK was a sliver of a point. I was happy for UA, they were terrific and UK has been at the top for so long that it is more interesting to have SOME variety at the top. This particular win, and the bad form by Alabama's AD, may be significant. College cheerleading, I believe, is going to be subjected to a major change in direction, one way or the other.