This meet style is new and from my understanding the reasons this meet style came into being stems back to the Quinnipiac Title IX court case. Some of the comments in the judges ruling (against cheer and for volleyball) is 1)the team needed a "regular season" NOT just ..we're going to this competition and competing against these teams...we think 2)You need to track the athletes' stats, so All-American's can be determined (as in any NCAA sport).
So having attended most of these meets and the Oregon/UMD championship this past weekend, I commend but also have deep concerns about this whole set up. The meet style gives us SO much more to enjoy than just a mere 2:30. However, I believe the scoring matrix was not detailed enough and was really taken advantage of by the Oregon program. From what I understand, the matrix counts bases steps (bad) vs flyer flexibility, body positions etc. So reading the comments on this thread saying "Oregon won most of the heats/rounds leading into the final routine" is really distorting. From my layman's perspective..Oregon got the same stunt value for putting up a switch up lib as Maryland did for doing a quarter switch up straight to stretch/bow. There were no points given for flexibility or flyer positioning. UMD just didn't want to stray away from what they do so well (showmanship/flexibility/finesse.inovation) just to "work the score sheet". Yet Oregon decided to go the route of putting up 2 mans and 1 mans...excuse me 1-womans (with no flexibility/and actually looked shaky) ...just to hit a scoresheet.
In addition (and I know I'm biased on this but you can judge for yourself and look on goducks.com video coverage)...there were definitely scoring issues throughout the competition. UMD's tumbling pass which scored a 9.5 and WON the individual tumbling award earlier in the day...1 hour later scored an 8.3. They must have "thought" she stepped off the mat but it's obvious on the replay...she landed in control ON the matt and turned and stepped off the matt. That alone cost UMD over 1 point in those "heats" that Oregon "won". Many more of these sorts of things happened.
Yes, change is uncomfortable. I can definitely accept that an go with growing pains. However....this weekend was really not right. The UMD/Oregon meet rewarded manipulations of the scoresheet and there was such a level of bias that it was embarassing. This is a shame because these coaches/administrators have worked so hard to stand behind this emerging sport. Almost 500,000 young men & women are committed to "cheerleading" across the country. We don't need to "create a new sport" we are trying to VALIDATE and SANCTION a sport that our kids have grown to love over the past 15 years. So for those of you who say.....this isn't cheerleading...."HELLO?!?...it has sprung up from cheerleading. Let's not distort it into some crude form of acrobatics...
Well...I better get off this soap box I'm on because it's about to collapse under me!