The New York Times this morning reports on a lawsuit currently working its way through the federal court system. At issue is whether competitive cheerleading is a sport.

Quinnipiac University in Connecticut recently eliminated its women’s volleyball team as a budget-cutting measure. But as the Times notes, the anti-discrimination law known as Title IX requires colleges to “provide equal athletic opportunities for men and women.” (Actually, it’s a little more complicated than that, but never mind.)

And so Quinnipiac decided to replace women’s volleyball with competitive cheerleading — the cheerleading squad, it turns out, costs the school some $5,000 less per student to run than the volleyball team does.

Hence the lawsuit.

If competitive cheerleading is a sport, then it counts toward satisfying Quinnipiac’s Title IX obligations. If it isn’t, it doesn’t. The volleyball team is arguing that it isn’t, and that the university should be barred from dissolving their squad. So far they’ve been successful — a temporary injunction has kept their sport alive at Quinnipiac for the last year — with the judge’s final decision expected in the coming days.