The Title IX saga at Stephen F. Austin State University's athletics department continues as the university has appealed last week’s judge’s decision requiring SFA to reinstate three women’s sports teams.
The judge ordered SFA to reinstate women’s beach volleyball, bowling and golf after athletes from those sports filed a Title IX lawsuit against the university. By eliminating those programs, the number of varsity roster spots available to women compared to men was no longer in alignment.
Related: Judge Orders Stephen F. Austin to Reinstate Women’s Teams Amid Title IX Dispute
According to CBS19, in appealing the judge’s decision, SFA claimed that reinstating the programs so close to the start of the fall semester would be “financially significant and logistically improbable.”
Michael McBroom, SFA athletic director, said, “It would cost about $1 million to reinstate the teams.” By that metric, he argued that the financial burden to SFA outweighs the harm to the female student-athletes.
SFA also reported that there were not enough female student-athletes to fill the necessary roster spots on those teams. With the fall semester starting in only ten days, there would not be enough time to recruit additional student-athletes to make these three teams competitive.
Coaching would also prove challenging as two of the teams no longer have coaches. Only the women’s golf coach agreed to return after hearing the judge’s preliminary injunction.
“In fact, much of Plaintiffs’ argument was that the teams could eventually be fielded for the spring semester,” SFA claimed. “Their own expert even posited that it could take three to four years to reinstate the teams. Despite this testimony, however, the trial court improperly assigned more weight to the athletes (who are not athletics administrators) and two of the three coaches that the teams could be fielded.”
The U.S. District Court has not acted on SFA’s appeal at this time.
