Athletes file suits over cuts of sports
Complaints allege fraud, Title IX breach
A group of Stanford athletes sued the university Wednesday over plans to cut 11 non-revenue sports programs at the end of the current school year for budgetary reasons made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Athletes from eight of the teams filed a suit in U.S. District Court in San Jose while women athletes from fencing, field hockey, rowing, squash and synchronized swimming alleged sex discrimination in a separate complaint in the same court.
The complaint said university officials misled students about their opportunities to participate at Stanford, home to the country’s most successful intercollegiate athletics program, thereby denying them a chance to pursue their sports at other colleges.
The first complaint alleges fraud, intentional misrepresentation and breach of contract.
In the parallel suit, women athletes said the planned cuts will eliminate more than 100 athletic participation opportunities for female athletes, leaving Stanford in violation of Title IX, the 1972 law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs.
The complaint said that the women would have to give up their Olympic dreams in favor of completing their Stanford educations if their five sports are not reinstated. Rebecca Peterson-Fisher, the women’s attorney, said as much as Title IX has done for female athletes, the law is violated all the time.
“People need to look past the rhetoric and look at how
schools are really treating female athletes and that’s what we’re seeing here,” she said.
A university spokesman wrote in a prepared statement that Stanford was surprised and disappointed to learn about the suits.
“It is well known that Stanford has been engaged in productive conversations with 36 Sports Strong, a group of former Stanford athletes and alumni, and other supporters of Stanford Athletics, to explore possible viable paths to restoring these sports, including through fundraising efforts,” spokesperson Farnaz Khadem said. “We understand that the lawyers and plaintiffs bringing these lawsuits are not part of the cooperative effort being led by 36 Sports Strong. The lawsuits will not influence the conversations we’re engaged in or our ultimate decision.”
Stanford officials last summer said they would cut men’s and women’s fencing, field hockey, lightweight rowing, men’s rowing, co-ed and women’s sailing, squash, synchronized swimming, men’s volleyball and wrestling.
According to the suit, 240 Stanford athletes “were unceremoniously informed — via a Zoom call with approximately 30 minutes’ notice — that their collegiate athletic careers had been canceled.”
Before the July 8 announcement, the suit alleged, no one at Stanford — including the administration, the athletics department or the coaches — even suggested the possibility that any sports would be eliminated.
The suit claims that plan to cut sport sports was “developed in secrecy for as many as four years” before the announcement. It alleged Associate Athletics Director Heather Owen told the field hockey team that the decision to eliminate programs “had been in the making for several years.”
“When I chose this school, I didn’t expect it,” freshman wrestler Peter Ming said in an interview. “Just to drop it on us and not talk to us” was frustrating.
Those sports involved 240 student-athletes and 22 coaches and more than 4,000 alumni whose contributions led to 20 national championships and 27 Olympic medals. They were marked for the budget ax based on a host of factors from cost to fan interest, prospects for success and impacts on studentathlete diversity.
A July 2020 letter to the Stanford community noted that its 36 varsity sports are more than almost any other Division 1 university in the country, with the average being half as many, and said the cost of offering so many sports was “not sustainable.”
Even before the pandemic, Stanford said it had projected a $12 million athletic department deficit in the current year. The financial hit of COVID-19 lockdowns more than doubled that figure to a projected $25 million, with a forecasted shortfall of almost $70 million over the next three years.
One of the axed sports, sailing, was involved in the national college admissions scandal in 2019. Stanford’s former sailing coach pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy for recommending acceptance to the selective university rich students with little boating skill in exchange for $770,000 for his sailing program funneled through their corrupt college consultant.
The suit said eliminating the sports would reduce the university’s athlete population by 28% but decrease the athletic budget by only about 5%.
The reduction of women athletes could lead to violations under Title IX, the sex discrimination suit said. It alleged Stanford already manipulates its male-to-female numbers to “create an illusion of substantial proportionality” for Title IX compliance by double-counting sailors as being on the women’s team and the co-ed team.
Stanford said it would continue scholarships for athletes whose sports were cut, help those who want to transfer and allow their activities to continue as club sports, which aren’t regulated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and typically are student-run and receive little financial aid from the university.
Stanford has an annual budget of about $7 billion, and a $28 billion endowment. But much of the endowment is restricted, meaning donations are earmarked for specific uses, from research projects to scholarships.
The suits, which ask for unspecified monetary damages, want the court to reinstate the sports. Additionally, the women athletes are asking for an order leading Stanford to offer equal athletic opportunities for men and women as designed by Title IX.
In the meantime, Ming, the freshman wrestler, has trained this spring as hard as ever.
“We think we’re going to get it back,” Ming said, “so we’re going to keep preparing for next season.”