Judge rules Title IX lawsuit can go forward

The San Diego Union-Tribune

In a first-of-its-kind decision, a San Diego federal judge has ruled that 16 female athletes who sued San Diego State University last year over allegedly receiving less scholarship money than male athletes have standing to seek damages from the university.

Data provided by the women and their attorneys allege SDSU deprived its female athletes of more than $5.36 million in financial aid between 2010 and 2020. They contend that while the data are not yet available for more recent years, the university’s practice of giving more scholarship money to male athletes is still occurring.

Attorneys representing SDSU and the California State University’s board of trustees asked U.S. District Judge Todd Robinson to dismiss the claims. In an order issued last week, Robinson ruled the plaintiffs can move forward with the lawsuit — a key milestone in moving the case toward trial.

The lawsuit claims SDSU violated Title

IX — the landmark 1972 legislation that prohibits gender discrimination at educational institutions receiving federal funding — by depriving the female athletes of equal scholarship money and equal treatment and benefits. It also claims the university retaliated against the athletes who joined the lawsuit.

“This is the first case in the country in which women have sued a university for damages for depriving them of equal financial aid, and the first case in the country in which a judge has allowed them to do it,” said lead plaintiffs’ attorney Arthur Bryant, who is based in Oakland and specializes in Title IX cases for the firm Bailey & Glasser.

Bryant said if the plaintiffs ultimately win their case, damages could include the scholarship money they should have been paid, as well as additional compensation for having their Title IX rights violated.

“This is a precedent-setting case,” Bryant said Monday.

In a statement, SDSU said it “does not discriminate against its female student-athletes” and that its funding level for women’s scholarships “remains among the highest” for all schools in the Mountain West Conference, the state and the entire NCAA.

“The court’s ruling simply means that some of the plaintiffs’ allegations meet the minimum requirements for eligibility to proceed to the next phase of the case, which is still in its infancy,” the university said in its statement. “The court expressly carved out any opinion about whether the plaintiffs would be able to prove any monetary damages at some point in the future.”

The statement said SDSU “awards almost all possible scholarships permitted under NCAA rules for both its men’s and women’s teams, with the remaining fraction explained by legitimate, nondiscriminatory reasons within SDSU coaches’ discretion.”

In his ruling, Robinson wrote that SDSU and its attorneys will have the burden of proving there have been legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons for disproportionately funding the scholarships for male athletes more than female athletes.