A federal judge has dismissed Riley Gaines’ Title IX lawsuit against the NCAA, ruling not on the merits of the organization’s past transgender-athlete policies but on a narrower technical question: whether the NCAA counts as a recipient of federal funds at all.
U.S. District Judge Tiffany R. Johnson, an appointee of President Biden, granted summary judgment to the NCAA on Monday and ordered the clerk to close the case. Johnson found that the evidence did not establish the NCAA as a recipient of federal financial assistance, which is required for liability under Title IX.
“Here, there is no evidence that the NCAA ever received, or could have received, federal funds,” Johnson wrote. “Thus, Plaintiffs’ Title IX claims cannot proceed.”
The finding turned on the NCAA’s concussion-research partnership with the Department of Defense. Gaines and her co-plaintiffs argued that arrangement made the NCAA an indirect recipient of federal money. Johnson disagreed, concluding that the NCAA and the Pentagon kept separate funding streams, both contributing to Indiana University for research carried out through the Concussion Assessment, Research and Education Consortium.
In response, the NCAA issued a statement that sidestepped the substance of the case entirely: “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 Independent Council on Women’s Sports, which funded Gaines’ lawsuit, was unimpressed. “No promises to women. No assurances. No accountability. The weakest possible response: empty words on a page,” the group wrote in a social media post.
The case that started it all
Gaines, more than a dozen other current and former female college athletes, sued the NCAA in March 2024, alleging its rules violated their Title IX rights by allowing biological males to compete in women’s events and share women’s locker rooms.
The lawsuit centered on the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, where former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle and used a locker room with female competitors. Gaines, then swimming for Kentucky, tied Thomas for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle.
That policy no longer exists. President Trump signed his “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order on Feb. 5, 2025, directing federal agencies to enforce Title IX according to biological sex. The NCAA changed its rules the very next day, limiting women’s team competition to athletes assigned female at birth. Athletes assigned male at birth may still practice with women’s teams and receive benefits such as medical care while practicing, according to ncaa.org.
What’s next
Gaines and ICONS announced Monday that they intend to appeal the dismissal to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“This momentary setback will not deter me or other women athletes in the least. Rest assured, we will be appealing this decision.” — Riley Gaines
The NCAA’s statement did not address the planned appeal, the plaintiffs’ criticism of its earlier policy, or whether the organization maintains it is categorically beyond Title IX’s reach.
ICONS co-founders Kim Jones and Marshi Smith argue the NCAA’s own legal position — that it falls outside Title IX’s coverage — undercuts the case for giving the organization more authority through the Protect College Sports Act, which passed the Senate on Monday. Smith said the NCAA “cannot be trusted to regulate anyone’s sports — men’s or women’s” and called on members of Congress to reject the bill.
The appeal could ask the 11th Circuit to decide whether the NCAA’s concussion-research collaboration with the Defense Department, or its ties to federally funded research partners, is enough to place the organization under Title IX’s reach after all.
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