Fresno State, women's lacrosse team settle Title IX claims

(CN) — Members of the Fresno State women’s lacrosse team on Wednesday settled with their former college over a Title IX case that stemmed from accusations the school treated its players worse than other sports teams.

In its 2021 federal suit, the team argued that the college and its board of trustees denied it equal opportunities for athletic financial aid and treatment, including eliminating the team at the end of the 2020-21 academic year, along with its men’s tennis and wrestling teams.

Before filing suit, the plaintiffs sought a meeting about the team’s elimination and argued in a letter that it violated Title IX. The defendants in their reply said they were following Title IX and no meeting was needed. However, it did state in a letter that financial pressures from the Covid-19 pandemic led the defendants to cut some athletic programs.

“The decision to eliminate the women’s lacrosse team was entirely consistent with Fresno State’s history of sex discrimination in its intercollegiate athletic program, but it came as a surprise to the women on the team and their coaches,” the plaintiffs said in their complaint.

The lacrosse team faced worse treatment once its elimination became certain. The team pointed to its exclusion from athletic facilities and its locker room. Members couldn’t enter the locker room to collect their personal items.

“In the wake of Covid, the team was never provided a promised return-to-play plan that would have allowed it to practice and train during the fall off-season, although such plans were provided to men’s teams,” the plaintiffs claimed in their suit. “Instead, it was left waiting for months, practically until the team’s season began.”

No details about the settlement were revealed Wednesday, only that the parties had reached one. It’s expected the plaintiffs will file a motion for preliminary approval by month’s end.

Contacted by Courthouse News, the plaintiffs’ attorney Michael Caddell had no comment. Attorneys for the defendants couldn’t be reached for comment.

The case crawled through the court system, and at one point reached the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Initially asking a judge to stay the team’s elimination, the plaintiffs received a mixed bag. The judge allowed Fresno State to eliminate the lacrosse team, though it did have to treat it equally from the remainder of that academic year.

Some claims failed as the suit progressed, though its effective accommodation and equal treatment claims remained intact. The issue of class certification reached the Ninth Circuit in 2024, with the appeals court vacating a lower court’s denial of certification.

Ultimately, that set the stage for a lower court’s March ruling denying the college’s motion to dismiss and granting a motion to certify class.

Fresno State had argued the judge should dismiss the complaint, as all the plaintiffs had since graduated.

“If the court were to dismiss on mootness grounds here, Fresno State would be allowed to continue to harm similarly situated female athletes by eliminating teams or subjecting them to unlawful treatment without facing any possibility of consequences,” U.S. District Senior Judge Kimberly Mueller ruled earlier this year.

Pivoting to the class certification arguments, Mueller in her March ruling found that, like in 2022, the proposed class continued to meet legal requirements. She added that Fresno State kept making the same arguments against certification.

“Instead, Fresno State simply argues that because the named plaintiffs are no longer students at Fresno State, they fail the typicality and commonality tests for the classes they propose to represent,” Mueller wrote.

The lawsuit intact and its class certified, the parties moved into a series of status conferences and settlement talks. The latter proved fruitful, as a meeting last month led to the resolution of a handful of issues. Only fees and costs remained.

That led to a Wednesday settlement conference before a magistrate judge and announcement the case had settled.