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ScottyB Being involved with an Athletic Administration now I can tell you that how to sell cheerleading to them and their importance is one of the most important parts of being a cheer coach. NCA/UCA/Varsity should really have a class or invest on how to sell how a successful spirit program improves ticket sales for basketball and football. It is NOT a direct relationship and needs some selling prowess, but can be done. We have had to aggregate and organize all our info up on the spot and dig Tech Cheer out of a hole the last coaching regime dug. We weren't allowed to compete or do any harder skills than basic shoulder stands. Now we are competing twice (CHEERSPORT and NCA), have recruits looking into us, and slowly getting more funding for the spirit program as a whole (cheer, dance [who we hope to have compete one day], appearance squad, mascots).
Ignoring all the other pieces and differences between UCA / NCA and focusing strictly on timing I think UCA is at a huge disadvantage. We had looked at going UCA when I first got hired but decided it is just too difficult timing wise for very little payoff. NCA being in April allows us to extend and time out our season better and match the allstar season. Choreographers, music producers, and working exhibitions in general is all timed out so nicely for NCA. As well I can give my athletes an Xmas break which is more attractive when talking to recruits and especially working around bowl games and basketball games. I found very little advantage to going to UCA at all outside of being less about tumbling and not needing to hire a choreographer.