Anyone who follows college sports knows that the University of Oregon’s athletic department, with its Nike connections, has a lot of money at its disposal. How much? So much that the school is now handing out scholarships for its new competitive cheerleading team.

(They deserve a scholarship, right? They’re more entertaining than the fencing team.)

While the university does have seemingly endless financial resources, all this actually has more to do with the fact that Oregon reinstated its baseball team this year than anything else. Title IX requires that the school add the same number of scholarships for women that the baseball team uses. And I guess the school was out of ideas for more women’s sports, so they decided that a varsity cheer team was a good enough idea. Here’s to hoping they get good coaching on how to properly operate a t-shirt cannon.

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