A Biden-appointed judge dismissed Riley Gaines' Title IX suit against the NCAA, as the association claimed full compliance with Trump's women's sports order.
U.S. District Judge Tiffany R. Johnson granted summary judgment to the NCAA on the remaining Title IX claims and directed the clerk to close the case. Gaines and more than a dozen other current and former female college athletes say they will appeal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Fox News Digital reported that the judge did not decide whether the NCAA's former transgender-athlete policies discriminated against female athletes. She ruled instead that the evidence failed to show the NCAA ever received, or could have received, federal funds, the hook required for Title IX liability.
"Here, there is no evidence that the NCAA ever received, or could have received, federal funds," Judge Johnson wrote. "Thus, Plaintiffs' Title IX claims cannot proceed."
The lawsuit, filed in March 2024, accused the NCAA of violating Title IX by allowing biological males into women's events and locker rooms. The fight traces back to the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships at Atlanta's McAuley Aquatic Center.
At those 2022 championships, former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle. On March 18, 2022, Thomas and Gaines, then representing Kentucky, finished tied for fifth in the 200-yard freestyle finals. The case also centered on locker room access shared with female competitors.
Gaines did not treat the district court loss as the end of the road.
"This momentary setback will not deter me or other women athletes in the least," Gaines said. "Rest assured, we will be appealing this decision."
The Independent Council on Women's Sports, known as ICONS, funded the suit and joined Gaines in announcing the appeal plans on Monday.
President Donald Trump signed the "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports" executive order on Feb. 5, 2025, in the East Room of the White House. The order directed federal agencies to enforce Title IX based on biological sex and prohibits transgender women from competing in women's sports.
The next day, the NCAA changed its participation policy. Competition on women's teams was limited to athletes assigned female at birth. No waiver would allow athletes assigned male at birth to compete on women's teams. The association still may allow those athletes to practice and receive certain benefits while practicing.
After the summary judgment order, the NCAA issued a statement affirming compliance with the Trump administration's executive order.
"The NCAA is proud to continually invest in and expand women's sports and the NCAA is in full compliance with the Trump administration's executive order on women's sports,"
the association said. It did not address the appeal, prior policy criticism, or broader Title IX coverage questions in that statement.
ICONS rejected the tone of that response later on Tuesday in a social media post.
"No promises to women. No assurances. No accountability. The weakest possible response: empty words on a page,"
the group wrote.
ICONS co-founders Kim Jones and Marshi Smith also tied the ruling to a separate fight in Congress. After the Protect College Sports Act passed the Senate on Monday, they argued that the NCAA's successful claim that it falls outside Title IX coverage shows lawmakers should not hand the association more authority.
Smith said the NCAA "cannot be trusted to regulate anyone's sports, men's or women's."
Judge Johnson's written findings examined a concussion-research collaboration involving the NCAA and the Department of Defense. Both contributed money to Indiana University for research through the Concussion Assessment, Research and Education Consortium. The court found those funding streams remained separate and did not establish the NCAA itself as a recipient of federal financial assistance under Title IX.
That procedural holding ended the remaining Title IX claims at the district court level without a ruling on whether female athletes faced discrimination under the old policies. Gaines and her co-plaintiffs now take that dispute to the 11th Circuit.
The sequence is plain. Women athletes sued over male inclusion in their events and private spaces. A Biden-appointed judge closed the case on a federal-funding technicality. The NCAA then pointed to its post-order policy change and called itself compliant. The athletes are appealing anyway.
Women's sports stay protected only when someone forces the issue past paperwork and press statements.
