Female Athletes File Sex Discrimination Class Action Against Stephen F. Austin University for Eliminating Women’s Teams and Violating Title IX
Seek Preservation of Beach Volleyball, Bowling, and Golf Teams;
Equal Participation Opportunities for Women in Varsity Sports
Contacts:
Arthur Bryant, 510-507-9972, arthur@arthurbryantlaw.com
John Clune, 970-390-5480, john.clune@hbcboulder.com
Female athletes at Stephen F. Austin University (SFA) filed a sex discrimination class action against the school today for discriminating against its female student-athletes and potential student-athletes in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, charges SFA with violating Title IX by depriving women of equal opportunities to participate in intercollegiate athletics. The school just announced it was eliminating the women’s beach volleyball, bowling, and golf teams, along with the men’s golf team, when it is already providing women with hundreds of fewer opportunities than the law requires.
“It is truly sad and disappointing that we have to sue SFA to make it comply with Title IX, provide women with equal opportunities, and preserve our teams,” said Sophia Myers, a senior on the women’s beach volleyball team. “But we have to stand up for our rights and fight what is right, including the gender equity Title IX requires.”
SFA female athletes Kara Kay, Ryann Allison, Elaina Amador, Berklee Andrews, and Meagan Ledbetter are also plaintiffs in the case.
“SFA’s elimination of the women’s beach volleyball, bowling, and golf teams is a blatant violation of Title IX,” said Arthur Bryant of Arthur Bryant Law, P.C., in Oakland, CA, lead counsel for the women. “We reviewed the facts and the law with the school, asked it to reinstate the teams and agree to comply with Title IX, and it refused. So, our clients are doing what SFA is requiring them to do—hold the school accountable in court.”
John Clune and Ashlyn Hare of Hutchinson Black and Cook in Boulder, CO, and James L. Sowder and Ellen Platt of Thompson, Coe, Cousins & Irons, LLP, in Dallas, TX, are co-counsel for the women athletes.
On May 22, 2025, SFA announced it was eliminating the three women’s teams (and its men’s golf team) at the end of the academic year. On June 5, 2025, Bryant emailed a letter to SFA President Neal Weaver, PhD, explaining that the elimination of the women’s lacrosse team violated Title IX and requesting a meeting to discuss preserving the teams and ensuring SFA’s Title IX compliance.
As the letter noted, Title IX prohibits educational institutions receiving federal funds from eliminating women’s teams for which interest, ability, and competition are available unless “intercollegiate level participation opportunities for male and female students are provided in numbers substantially proportionate to their respective enrollments.” SFA fails that test.
According to the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act data that SFA submitted and verified to the U.S. Department of Education as accurate, SFA had a total undergraduate population of 7,832 in 2022-23, including 4,961 women and 2,871 men. So, undergraduate enrollment was 63.3% women. The school’s intercollegiate athletic teams had 212 women and 242 men, or 46.7% women—creating a gap of 16.6% between the women’s undergraduate enrollment rate and their intercollegiate athletic participation rate. SFA needed (and needs) to add women’s opportunities to comply with Title IX.
But SFA just announced that it is eliminating three women’s teams that include 40 women (along with the men’s golf team that includes 11 men). As a result, the school’s athletic participation numbers will drop to approximately 172 women and 231 men, or 42.6% women—creating a 20.7% gap. SFA would need to add approximately 218 opportunities for women to reach gender equity under Title IX. This is, of course, far more opportunities to participate in varsity athletics than the women’s beach volleyball, bowling, and golf teams provide.
After SFA received Bryant’s letter, the lawyers for SFA and the women met. But, this past Friday, the school refused to agree to reinstate the three women’s teams and come into compliance with Title IX. So, the women filed suit today
Along with the class action, the women filed an emergency motion for a preliminary injunction seeking a court order preserving the three women’s teams while the case proceeds. A date for a hearing on the motion has not yet been set.
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