The cheerleading thing

As you’re probably aware, a federal judge ruled last week that Quinnipiac University in Connecticut could not count competitive cheerleading as a varsity sport, and thus had to reinstate volleyball at least for another year. After that, the school might still eliminate volleyball if it finds a satisfactory way, according to the judge, to comply with Title IX.

I was asked on an ESPN.com chat last week what I thought of the ruling, and said I was still sorting my way through it. And here’s why. It’s not because I disagree with the judge’s decision. I think it was absolutely the right one.

The trickier issue, to me, comes in trying to determine what is a “sport.” I would guess a lot of people might think competitive cheer is just some made-up hokum that should be getting left behind as we start the second decade of the 2000s, rather than being debated as a “sport.”

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How can reality find its place in college sports?

There are those times when you read about the way something used to be and think, “How could it have gone on like that for so long?”

I wonder if that will someday be the case in regard to the desperately clung-to concept of “amateurism” in the two college sports that produce revenue in the larger conferences: football and men’s basketball. There is really nothing “amateur” about either one, yet the facade is fiercely defended _ by those who benefit enormously from it, and by those who wish to live in a dream world devoid of practical sense and economic reality.

Programs are punished and athletes’ reputations are tarnished because of this, and every story of the latest program “exposed” just irritates me more. Not because of the athlete who “gave into temptation” and took money from an agent. But because of the system that profits off that athlete’s talent while condemning him for wanting to do the same.

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Thoughts on the UConn factor

One thing continues to be a lingering topic – not surprisingly – in regard to last weekend’s Stars at the Sun game and the U.S. national team in general.

And that is the “UConnization” of the group, as six current or former Huskies were on the 11-player team coached by Geno Auriemma that competed Saturday against a hodge-podge group of WNBA all-stars. It has prompted a lot of questions to me from readers, either through e-mail or in the weekly ESPN.com chat.

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A break in the action

It’s All-Star weekend … or “Stars at the Sun,” as it were … but every great once in a while, calendars just don’t align.

This is a weekend where I have another commitment that I really needed to fulfill. Graham Hays will be at the Mohegan Sun on Saturday for the game and will have some stories for ESPN.com. I’ll offer some thoughts as well here on Monday.

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An ultimately bad night in Phoenix

I’ve learned over the years as a sports writer that altercations/controversies in games are virtually always going to be seen differently by the fans of the parties involved. And no matter what I write about it, somebody is going to be ticked off and think I am dead wrong.

People do see things through whatever prism they view the world. And we all have quite varied prisms. So I always debate for a while with myself about what to write in reaction to incidents like the flagrant foul/ejection of New York’s Cappie Pondexter against her former team, Phoenix, on Saturday.

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Staying the course with the Shock

TULSA _We can’t say absolutely for sure what the Tulsa Shock’s first season could have been like if key components had stayed on board for the move to Oklahoma. If Katie Smith were here instead of Washington. If Deanna Nolan and Cheryl Ford also were playing here, instead of sitting out the WNBA season.

If they’d all been on the Shock roster, would Plenette Pierson have found coach Nolan Richardson’s system more palatable, and not been so miserable that she was traded to New York? Would Shavonte Zellous somehow not have been dealt for a 2011 draft pick?

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Chattering away

Just a quick note: I do have the ESPN.com chat today at 2 p.m. Eastern time. That should be a regular thing each Thursday at the same time throughout WNBA season, provided there are no conflicts with travel … or I don’t find myself stranded on a deserted island.

A deserted island without internet access, that is.

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