A judge has denied a temporary restraining order filed by the Quinnipiac University women’s rugby team, attempting to stop the university from eliminating their program and continuing to compete while their recently filed lawsuit proceeds.
According to NBC Connecticut, in denying the temporary restraining order, the judge ruled that Quinnipiac does not have to maintain the team’s varsity status while the team’s discrimination lawsuit plays out in court.
Related: Quinnipiac Women’s Rugby Players Sue University, Alleging Sex Discrimination
"For the foregoing reasons, the Court concludes that Plaintiffs have not met their burden of demonstrating either likely success on the merits of their claims or sufficiently serious questions going to the merits to make them a fair ground for litigation on the issue," said Judge Kari A. Dooley.
The lawsuit was filed by nearly two dozen current and prospective student-athletes against the university, alleging Title IX violations and discrimination. The plaintiffs claim that Quinnipiac has engaged in long-standing sex discrimination by providing women’s teams with unequal benefits, treatment and support across key areas of athletics, and that the decision to cut women’s rugby is a retaliatory response to repeated Title IX concerns raised about the treatment of female athletes.
Quinnipiac University officials say the decision to cut the team was not born out of retaliation or discrimination, but was a financial decision to bring the athletics department into compliance with Title IX. In cutting the team, Quinnipiac added a men’s varsity team.
In the wake of the judge’s decision, student-athlete Carolyn Melody released a statement saying, “For our team, this decision lands like a confirmation that our lives and our work can be treated as numbers on a spreadsheet, and it is deeply disappointing. We are a nationally recognized, championship‑caliber women’s rugby program that Quinnipiac once pointed to with pride, and yet we are being downgraded without the university producing verifiable answers on finances, Title IX, or process. If a program like ours can be pushed aside despite its success and institutional value, then every emerging women’s sport has reason to worry about what comes next when budgets tighten or models shift. This is bigger than one team; it is a warning sign about how easily women’s and Olympic‑pathway sports can be sacrificed in this new college sports economy.”
