Women’s Swimming & Diving and Tennis Reinstated; Female Athletes Seeking Equal Opportunities to Participate in Varsity Sports
United States District Court Judge Fred W. Slaughter issued a 13-page Order Granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification late Friday in the Title IX case filed against Concordia University Irvine (“CUI”) by its women’s swimming & diving and tennis team members after the school tried to eliminate their teams.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, charges CUI with violating Title IX by depriving women of equal opportunities to participate in intercollegiate athletics. Just over a year ago, in October 2025, the court issued a preliminary injunction barring CUI from “eliminating its women’s swimming & diving team, its women’s tennis team, and all other women’s varsity teams at CUI for the 2025-26 academic year, and for the duration of this case or until further order of this court.”
On Friday, November 6, 2026, the court entered a new Order that “CERTIFIES” the case to proceed as a class action on behalf of “All present, prospective, and future female CUI students who participate, seek to participate, and/or are or were deterred or prevented from participating in intercollegiate varsity athletics at CUI.” The Order says: “Plaintiffs Alexandra Grant, Mikayla Barre, Kiera Gutierrez, Bryn Johnson, Alexandra Leland, Ruby McCullough, Aliyah Treadwell and Carissa Ward are APPOINTED as Class Representatives.”
“This is a big victory for all female athletes and potential athletes at CUI, now and in the future,” said plaintiff Alexandra Grant, a junior on the women’s swimming & diving team. “We filed this case to preserve our teams, make CUI comply with Title IX, and win equal opportunities to participate in varsity sports for all women at CUI. Now, we’ll be able to do that.”
CUI female athletes Mikayla Barre, Kiera Gutierrez, Bryn Johnson, Alexandra Leland, Ruby McCullough, Aliyah Treadwell, and Carissa Ward are also plaintiffs in the case.
“The court’s straightforward, well-reasoned decision adds to what the law nationwide makes clear: Title IX athletics cases seeking equality for women are natural class actions,” said Arthur Bryant of Arthur Bryant Law, P.C., in Oakland, CA, lead counsel for the women. “They focus on whether the school is giving all women, as a group, and all men, as a group, equal opportunities and treatment. The class action rules were designed for cases like these. They can ensure that justice is done.”
“The court’s ruling is a major step forward,” said Eric Grover of Keller Grover LLP in San Francisco, co-counsel for the women. “Instead of providing equality, CUI has been doing all it can to avoid accountability. This decision shows that will not work. CUI is going to have to answer to its female athletes.”
Because of the court’s preliminary injunction, CUI has been barred from eliminating any women’s teams. But its varsity athletic program is still far from providing women equal opportunities to participate in varsity sports. According to the best information publicly available, women were 61.25% of CUI’s undergraduates in 2025-26, but were given only 53.32% of the opportunities to participate in varsity sports. CUI would have had to add 124 opportunities for women to achieve gender equity.
