How many cheer competitions are there in the US in any given year?  1000?  2000?  Why can there not be 1 competition out of thousands that is designed for the most elite level teams? 

Saying you want there to be a single competition for level 5-6 teams does not automatically mean that you think that level 1-4 is made up of worthless kids.  Every sport on the planet that I can think of has elite level competitions set aside for the top teams - why should cheer be an exception to that?  No one is saying that we should eliminate the lower levels.  No one is saying that those kids are worthless or that they don't "work hard" or "want it just as much as a level 5 kid." 

Get over your politically correct selves for just one second and realize that 1 competition for elite teams is not destroying the will and spirit of every level 1-4 cheerleader.  The Olympics don't ruin gymnastics even though they don't have low level gymnasts compete.  The Stanley Cup Finals are ruining hockey for every peewee team across the globe.  The SuperBowl doesn't crush the dreams of Pop Warner football players because the big bad NFL won't let them compete in it.

What would be next?  Just making everybody do "exhibitions" instead of getting a score.  (Because ranking teams really hurts the feelings of the teams that don't win.)  Should we change the names of the levels to something different - after all, we don't want a Tiny 1 cheerleader to feel like they are "less" than a Senior 5 team.

i would  just like to see  a competition  for all the  levels  mainly  to experience competing against teams  from  all over the  US  instead of  locals.

But in this case, what applies is not what the BCS does poorly, but what it does well. Admittedly the BCS sucks at determining exact ranking positions within the top 10 or so spots. But what it does WELL is that it allows you to at least know who the top 25 ARE across a field of 250+ teams. And in this situation, that's all you need. Take that top 25, send them to Worlds to determine the winner. Its better than the current process, where teams in 7th or 8th place in a weaker field are being handed down bids and a legitimately strong team (SoT is a great example) is in a stronger local field and thus has a harder time even getting the bid they need to be able to go.

I agree that its not perfect but I don't know how else you ensure the right people end up at Worlds. The teams need to be nationally ranked before they can be sent to a "World" competition.

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THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!! For those posts. 

My Forever long feelings on this topic

As far as bids go there are teams who could receive partial or even paid bids and not be able to afford the trip.  Unless you receive a paid bid for a Small team (20 or less members) regardless of where your team is from you are recieving enough money to get your team to Worlds without additional costs.  As far as teams who recieve paid bids for a large team I would assume/guess that the only teams that come from the Deep South (Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama and Mississippi) are the only teams in the nation who don't have to shell out extra money for the trip to Worlds.  People hear Paid Bid and think Free trip this idea is so not true, ask any team in West of the Mississippi River who revceived a Paid Bid to Worlds if the trip was paid they will deffinately tell you no.   This is why I do think that Worlds needs to start rotating venues; unfortunately I think it would be hard to find a venue that has the accommodations the come with the Milk House and Disney World.   Now a better argument for not handing out At Large bids would probably be that "2/3 of the teams that receive them do not make it out of prelims" (quoted from earlier post).  But if that statistic is true then it definitely goes with my opinion that Worlds is a competition that should be for the elite teams and athletes of our sport.  If we want our sport to be considered legitimate then we need to have a place where only the elite teams and athletes compete against each other.  Thus having no reason to involve all the other levels, this is why you don't see level 2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and not even all level 9 elite gymnast make the Olympics.  Let's be real people Worlds should not be a competition to go to just for "the experience" you have plenty of other large National Competitions that you can attend for that.  Put it this way, Fotball players dream of being in the Super Bowl, Baseball Players the World Series and  gymnast the Olympics not all the althletes in these sports get to experience the feeling of competing on the great stages of thier sport and thats why competitive Cheerleaders should dream of being able to compete at Worlds it's what makes experiencing and winning it so special.  If an athlete dreams of being on that level or that high level competitive stage they should be getting in the gym putting in the effort and working hard to earn their way there.  It is also my opinion I think the USASF should be coming up with a score sheet that is required to be used at every USASF event and more specifically for those teams in Worlds divisions.  Then they need to come up with a minimum score that must be achieved to earn a bid which would kill the idea of bids being passed along at competitions, like GSSA had to do at Super Six this year.  (note this was not under the passing down of a bid claus that everyone seems to be so confused about) However, Yes this might mean that a company may not be able to hand out bid, but that just helps make the Worlds that much harder to get to and much more of a prestigious event.     

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Very very well said! I fully agree that worlds should be the elite of the elite teams! Not every level 5 team deserves to go! I also believe that worlds should be level 5. If one day competitive cheerleading is included int he olympic games level 1-4 is not going to be the teams compeating. Worlds is our olymics so it should be the best of the best. I have cheered on teams levels 2-6 so I see where other posters are coming from when they say they should include the lower level teams. It is true that you work just as hard on every level team but It is working hard on the lower teams that gets you to that level 5 team. That is just my take on the subject!