The University of Oregon’s Dance Team has been representing the school on the national stage since 2001, with 13 of those years spent competing at the Universal Dance Association Collegiate Championship.

But while preparing for the 2025 UDA Championship, which took place in January, the Duck Dancers were informed that they did not meet the competition’s requirements due to their status as a club sports team and a lack of mandated “spirit points.” 

As a result, their ability to compete was taken away, and they were left ineligible to earn awards at the competition — leaving the team fighting for future opportunities to participate.

The decision was unexpected, as they had been competing in varsity-branded competitions for 25 years with minimal oversight from UO athletics, according to current Duck Dancer Hadley Flagg. 

Per UDA’s rules, teams must prove “they are representing in competition and official members of that school’s spirit team (no club teams or competition only teams).” 

“Spirit points” are a method of qualification used by Varsity Spirit to determine a team’s eligibility. The points are earned by teams via performances at school sporting events, such as halftime performances of basketball and football games. 

According to the dancers, they previously had opportunities to perform in halftime shows at men’s and women’s basketball games.

In addition to earning points through these performances, teams are required to submit a video demonstrating these performances as well as interactions with fans as part of their eligibility for the competition.

“Spirit is 5% of your overall score and you have to have it to compete,” Rylee Boyersmith, a current team member, said.

The dance team believed they had been fulfilling the required “spirit points” through their performances at UO hockey games, which at that point was one of their only regular performances. 

“Because hockey is also under the club sports bracket, I guess that doesn’t count, which we didn’t know in previous years,” Boyersmith said. “It wasn’t something that we weren’t aware was even in the rule book. From what we knew, we just needed to have spirit opportunities. We did and still do hockey, but it’s kind of the only thing we can do.”

Since hockey was also classified as a club sport, the dancers’ performances did not fulfill the spirit requirement. With football season over and winter break beginning, the team was left scrambling for spirit opportunities they say never came.

Jimmy Stanton, senior associate athletic director for communications, said in a statement to the Emerald that the athletics department has no oversight of the Duck Dancers because club dance teams are affiliated with the Office of Student Life and not athletics.

According to Stanton, the official University of Oregon Cheer and Dance program is made up of only a coed stunt team, a dance team and the Oregon Duck mascot.

Boyersmith said that while Varsity Spirit “wanted to work with” the team, they still would not be able to compete unless they could prove they were the university’s official dance team or get a signature from somebody within the school.

Boyersmith said the team was unable to get that signature.

“The Oregon Cheer and Dance program is the official spirit team for Oregon athletics, and club dance teams are student organizations,” Stanton wrote. “No one in athletics would sign a statement affirming otherwise, as that would be inaccurate.”

Lost Opportunities to Perform at Sporting Events

“In the past, we were allowed to perform at women’s basketball games every year, and we even had a few men’s basketball halftime performances,” Seagraves said. “Slowly, those opportunities were taken away from us, even though we had (athletics) signing off on them before.”

According to Stanton, the athletics marketing department schedules all half time performances. 

“Our marketing department prioritizes scheduling groups that enhance fan experience, prioritizing groups who have been well received by fans in prior appearances and also those that have not previously had the opportunity to perform at past events,” Stanton said.

 Seagraves said the team was never provided with any explanation from UO as to why this decision was made. 

The dancers argue, however, that there are other non-athletic teams that have been allowed to perform at halftime shows such as the Duck Street Dancers, a dance club at UO.  

“There’s no legitimate reason why we aren’t allowed to perform at games anymore,” Seagraves said. “Other community groups are allowed to perform at halftime, but not us. With the decreasing spirit opportunities being given to the Duck Dancers, they struggled to gather the necessary “spirit points,” to compete. According to Seagraves, this issue has arisen at other schools in prior years. 

Despite these Duck Dancers setbacks, in 2025 Varsity Spirit allowed the dancers to perform as an exhibition in the D1A Jazz and Pom categories at UDA Nationals — meaning their performances were ineligible for award. 

They were also offered the opportunity to compete in the  University World Cup Cheerleading Championships in both pom and jazz in January, in which they won gold — a victory they hoped would have proved their legitimacy to the university, Filler said. 

“We work super hard to have our routines ready, and we went and won gold at this competition,” Boyersmith said. “This is why we should be able to compete at UDA again.”

The dance team has asked for support to be recognized as an official spirit team of UO, which will provide them with the official designation that would allow them to compete — a petition on change.org has garnered over 8,000 signatures. 

According to UO Spokesperson Eric Howald, the school is aware of the petition and said the UO Division of Student Life “appreciates student activism.” However, “There are no current plans to change the Duck Dancers’ status at the university.”

“People know us at UDA. They see the Ducks and cheer,” Boyersmith said. “If we’re not there, people will wonder ‘what happened to Oregon?’”

The UO has yet to publicly respond to the team’s latest efforts. 

“We’re not asking for funding,” Boyersmith said. “We just want the chance to compete.”