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The U.S. Supreme Court rejected a plea on Monday to get involved in a dispute over Michigan State University’s decision to end its swimming-and-diving teams.
A lawsuit was filed by female athletes after MSU ended its men’s and women’s swimming-and-diving teams following the 2021 season. The school argued that “cost” was the reason for the move, saying its swimming and diving facilities needed upgrades that would cost millions of dollars.
“Members of the women’s team sued to say the decision violated federal anti-discrimination law, commonly known as Title IX. A judge rejected a request to keep the women’s team alive while the lawsuit proceeded, saying she doubted the female swimmers would prevail at the end of the litigation. But a three-judge federal appeals court panel later ruled 2-1 that the judge should take another look at the case,” Reuters reported.
“The high court rejected the university’s appeal of a lower-court ruling in favor of former members of the team who say MSU violated Title IX by not providing enough opportunities for women athletes to participate in sports. The lawsuit centers on MSU’s announcement in October 2020 that it planned to cease sponsoring the men’s and women’s swimming-and-diving teams when the school year ended, citing budgetary challenges in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Those teams in the 2019-2020 school year had 29 men and 33 women. Females comprised 50.9% of its overall undergraduate class that year and 51.2% the year before,” the report added.
SCOTUS has declined to consider how strictly to interpret the landmark Title IX civil rights law's protections for gender equality in college sports in a lawsuit challenging Michigan State University's elimination of its women's swimming and diving team. https://t.co/hpMX9C80GG
— Nate Raymond (@nateraymond) December 12, 2022
During a Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 28, trustee Melanie Foster reported the board requested a report from athletics director Alan Haller “regarding the university’s athletics programmatic plans.”
“As a result of the report and subsequent dialogue,” she said, “the university will reach out to swim and dive advocates by the end of the semester. The Board remains committed to listening to all constituents. We have heard from swim and dive students, alumni, parents, and the greater Spartan community. AD Haller will work together to strategize a plan forward for the team within the next academic year.”
The report continued:
Eleven women student-athletes sued to force MSU to reinstate the women’s team, but a judge rejected that request, saying the gap in participation rates between genders created by cutting the team was too small to violate Title IX. He said no court had ever held a gap of less than 2% violated the law.
But on a 2-1 vote, the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in February ruled the judge erred in gauging the participation gap in percentage terms and said it must be assessed in numerical terms. Under that approach, a school could fail to meet Title Ix’s proportionality requirements even if the gap in participation between male and female student-athletes was just a small size of its athletics program.
The 6th Circuit sent the case back to U.S. District Judge Hala Jarbou, who in August on remand partially sided with the students by ordering MSU to submit a plan to come into compliance with Title IX while declining to force it to reinstate the team.
Fifteen Republican state attorneys general led by Ohio’s backed MSU’s appeal, saying the 6th Circuit wrongly was requiring “exact, per-capita, sex-based parity between the student population and athletic opportunities.” They said under the 6th Circuit’s approach, if 52% of a school’s students are women, then 52% of positions on its teams must also go to women, and a school could only deviate from that strict formula if it was impossible to field a viable team.
Kayla Williams, a former diver at MSU from 2006-10, spoke about Athletic Director Alan Haller and what’s planned for the university given many top athletes have been forced to swim elsewhere.
“The university is well positioned to bring these teams back,” Williams said. “The efforts of our group, Battle for Spartan Swim and Dive, have shown there is a large support base for these teams. We have had hundreds of people who have pledged millions of dollars to support MSU in reinstating both teams. We look forward to collaborating to rebuild our programs.”
