Eleven female athletes and a coach have sought a court to ban a transgender player from the Mountain West Conference Volleyball Championship, saying that Title IX prohibits male athletes from playing in women’s sports.
The landmark action filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado seeks an injunction barring San Jose State University from sending standout player Blaire Fleming to the Nov. 27-30 Las Vegas finals.
The 132-page case also asks the court to declare Fleming ineligible, bar SJSU from the tournament for utilizing an ineligible player all season, and revise the tournament rankings.
That means the four Mountain West clubs that forfeited matches against San Jose State will earn neutral “no contests.” San Jose State ranks second in the 11-school conference.
“SJSU played Fleming, an ineligible player, in every game this year, so it should not have any wins and should not be eligible for the MWC tournament,” the complaint read.
The lawsuit is believed to be the first to seek to exclude a transgender student from NCAA women’s sports and penalize the athlete’s team, but the claims go beyond this month’s tournament.
The petition accuses the Mountain West Conference and commissioner, the California State University Board of Trustees, and other SJSU administrators of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, viewpoint discrimination, and free speech violations.
The case is filed by 11 current and former players from five institutions and SJSU associate coach Melissa Batie-Smoose, who was banned last month for submitting a Title IX complaint against Fleming’s NCAA, conference, and university status.
Bill Bock, a top sports lawyer and former ADA general counsel, represents the athletes and coach. The Independent Council on Women’s Sports funds the lawsuit.
“The NCAA, Mountain West Conference, university presidents, and college athletic directors are failing women,” Bock stated. “Because the administrators lack courage, we must ask the federal courts to do their jobs.”
Robin McElhatton, San Jose State spokesman, declined to comment because the university did not receive a copy of the lawsuit until late Wednesday afternoon.
The lengthy lawsuit describes the drama behind the scenes as San Jose players found their buddy was a biological man and university administrators advised them to remain quiet as other teams canceled matches.
San Jose State has never officially acknowledged Fleming’s transgender status, but the lawsuit claims MWC has penalized forfeits to boycotting teams under its Transgender Participation Policy after stealth-adding it to the conference’s online manual on Sept. 27
That day, Boise State became the first MWC school to boycott its match against San Jose State.
The complaint claimed that the boycott “caused the Commissioner and her staff to hastily draft and post on the MWC website a policy designed to penalize First Amendment protests supporting the rights of women’s volleyball players in the MWC.”
The rules also said that institutions are not required to notify the conference or other schools of transgender athletes or answer questions from other programs.
The Mountain West, a Division I conference in Colorado Springs, has been contacted by the Washington Times.
Utah State and Nevada athletes stated school administrators pressured them to play San Jose State due to the policy. Still, both teams boycotted.
The lawsuit claimed that Nevada’s volleyball team refused to play despite the athletic director’s advice, saying “transwomen are at a disadvantage” since they use testosterone blockers and estrogen.
In NCAA women’s volleyball, transgender players must keep their testosterone below 10 nmol/L all season. Fleming’s 2022 transfer to San Jose State cost two players scholarships.
Sugai, a walk-on in 2021, claimed she continued with the team in 2022 to earn a scholarship in her final year, but Fleming defeated her for the starting right-side batter position.
Elle Patterson, another Spartans athlete, said she was informed she would receive a full scholarship in 2024, so she stayed and paid full out-of-state tuition in 2023-24.
After the season, head coach Todd Kress told Patterson she would not receive a scholarship while Fleming obtained one.
The lawsuit stated that Patterson would have obtained a full scholarship to play on the SJSU squad in 2023 and 2024 if Fleming had not been on the team.
The athletes were unaware that Fleming was a biological guy, even though they shared a women’s locker room. The lawsuit stated that Fleming never changed clothes in front of the other players, but they sometimes did.
The lawsuit stated that no SJSU coach or staff member told Sugai of Fleming’s true sex, preventing her from making an informed decision about whether to disrobe in front of him.
An April 2024 Reduxx story revealed Fleming’s transgender status. After the discussion, university officials told athletes not to discuss the incident outside the team.
The lawsuit alleged the players were instructed that criticizing Fleming or his SJSU Team participation would suggest bigotry, ruin their reputation, and might lead to penalty or loss of their scholarship and violate school policy or state law.
Spartans co-captain Brooke Slusser said she and Fleming often shared a road trip room in 2023. She then realized the coaches let Fleming choose a roommate.
After the Reduxx story, Fleming told her “he was born male and identified as a ‘transgender woman.’”
Slusser protested to the head coach that Fleming’s strength put female opponents and teammates at risk, but the complaint alleged “no steps” were done to safeguard them.
