Conservative activist Riley Gaines announced Tuesday that she would appeal a recent court decision dismissing her lawsuit against the NCAA.
Gaines and other current and former collegiate female athletes alleged the NCAA violated their Title IX rights by allowing biological males to compete in female sports.
“This momentary setback will not deter me or other women athletes in the least. Rest assured, we will be appealing this decision. We are on the side of truth. I am confident Americans will rally to our side to fight the NCAA,” Gaines said. “Working together we will defeat the NCAA’s continuing efforts to trample women’s rights in sports.”
In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Tiffany R. Johnson said the NCAA is not subject to IX rules because it does not take any federal funds.
“There is no evidence that the NCAA received federal financial assistance,” she wrote.
Johnson noted the Department of Defense (DoD) and the NCAA have a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, which permits the two entities to work on research, investments, and projects.
According to the ruling, the plaintiffs argued while the NCAA did not directly get federal funds, it indirectly received DoD funds and exercised control over entities that received the funds.
The ruling noted the NCAA and DoD entered into separate contracts with the University of Indiana (UI), the University of Michigan, and the Medical College of Wisconsin to research concussions. The researchers were chosen as part of the Concussion Assessment, Research and Education (“CARE”) Consortium.
The NCAA and DoD entered into standalone contracts with UI, which acted as the pass-through entity for the research funds, the ruling said.
Johnson said the “NCAA and the DoD each made separate, independent payments to IU to fund the CARE studies.”
“The plain language of the CRADA and the governing statutes provide that the NCAA could not receive funding from the federal government, the federal government could not pay funds to the NCAA, and nothing of value could be acquired or transferred to the NCAA from the federal government,” Johnson wrote.
The judge said no evidence exists where a “reasonable jury could conclude that the DoD violated Congress’ prohibition by paying federal funds, even in an indirect way, to the NCAA.”
The plaintiffs cited the Supreme Court case Grove City College v. Bell, claiming the NCAA received indirect funds from the DoD.
Grove College, a Pennsylvania-based college, does not receive federal assistance but has students who pay tuition using federal aid. The Supreme Court said the school was subject to Title IX because it indirectly received federal funds.
Johnson rejected this argument, saying, “The NCAA was not the ultimate recipient of federal funds; the CARE studies were.”
“Plaintiffs also argue that the NCAA received funds from IU by accepting reimbursements for employees’ travel and lodging expenses for a 2015 CARE meeting,” the judge said.
“But there is no evidence that IU used federal money to reimburse NCAA employees. And even if there was evidence of such use of federal funds by IU, IU’s payments, at most, constitute compensation for losses, which is not ‘federal financial assistance,’” she added.
The plaintiffs also said the Datalys Center, which “managed data collection” for the CARE study, was controlled by the NCAA and got federal funds, according to the ruling.
However, Johnson said no evidence showed the NCAA controlled the center or the governing agency arranged for the center to receive federal funding.
Even though the court ruling did not go the plaintiffs’ way, Independent Council on Women’s Sports Co-Founder Kim Jones said her organization believed the judge “erred and that the Court of Appeals will find that the NCAA, which is the controlling body of college sports for more than 1,100 member schools, almost all of which are federally funded, is subject to Title IX.”
Jones, who is a former college tennis player, said her organization “will not give up our fight for women and girls’ rights in sports.”
Independent Council on Women’s Sports is funding the plaintiff’s lawsuit.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected].
Photo “Riley Gaines” by Gage Skidmore. CC BY-SA 4.0.
