[oldalum]

While I, too, noticed the, er, ... aggressive... use of megaphones by the UT cheerleaders and band [especially], I'm not exactly sure why folks appear so bent out of shape by that.  . . .  Empirically . . . we did better under megaphone pressure than otherwise.

Sorry, but IMO this proves nothing. Our servers may not have served as aggressively in set 2 because of the noise in their ears. They may have been more warmed up and had better feel for the ball in set 2 than set 1 or 3 because of the lack of down time before the set started. The sample and effect sizes are too small to draw any conclusions. I did not see the cheerleaders yelling at our serve receivers, but if they did they were further away than our servers were from them, so I wouldn't expect an effect.

More important, in judging whether it is acceptable for the cheerleaders to do what they did, to me it's irrelevant whether the megaphone yelling had a discernible effect on our players, positive or negative. It's an attempt to gain an advantage in a way that is prohibited by the rules and therefore shouldn't be done. The ends--positive or negative--don't excuse or justify the means. Megaphones, small or large, are an artificial amplification device and are intended for cheerleaders to be heard by the crowd, not to raise the volume level directed in the ear of the athletes.

No apologies for being displeased with poor sportsmanship and rule breaking in competitive sports, where fair play should be the norm. No, it's not the end of the world, but few things discussed on this board are! It's just a game, but the athletes and many fans try to take the game seriously. "respect the game, respect the opponent, respect the officials"

[oldalum]

While I, too, noticed the, er, ... aggressive... use of megaphones by the UT cheerleaders and band [especially], I'm not exactly sure why folks appear so bent out of shape by that.  . . .  Empirically . . . we did better under megaphone pressure than otherwise.

Sorry, but IMO this proves nothing. Our servers may not have served as aggressively in set 2 because of the noise in their ears. They may have been more warmed up and had better feel for the ball in set 2 than set 1 or 3 because of the lack of down time before the set started. The sample and effect sizes are too small to draw any conclusions. I did not see the cheerleaders yelling at our serve receivers, but if they did they were further away than our servers were from them, so I wouldn't expect an effect.

More important, in judging whether it is acceptable for the cheerleaders to do what they did, to me it's irrelevant whether the megaphone yelling had a discernible effect on our players, positive or negative. It's an attempt to gain an advantage in a way that is prohibited by the rules and therefore shouldn't be done. The ends--positive or negative--don't excuse or justify the means. Megaphones, small or large, are an artificial amplification device and are intended for cheerleaders to be heard by the crowd, not to raise the volume level directed in the ear of the athletes.

No apologies for being displeased with poor sportsmanship and rule breaking in competitive sports, where fair play should be the norm. No, it's not the end of the world, but few things discussed on this board are! It's just a game, but the athletes and many fans try to take the game seriously. "respect the game, respect the opponent, respect the officials"