The San Jose State women’s volleyball team finds itself at the center of a storm as the Spartans head toward their first NCAA Tournament appearance in more than two decades.
The show’s forceful season is overshadowed by national talk show hosts and politicians commenting on one of their players. It’s about transgender women’s participation in women’s sports, which has taken on political implications – former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, recently spoke on the topic – and is apparently the reason why five teams canceled their games against San Jose State have canceled.
On Thursday night, the University of Nevada, Reno became the latest team to cancel a game against the Spartans, citing insufficient players. The Wolf Pack was originally scheduled to host San Jose State this weekend, but Nevada players announced they would not go to court, saying they “refuse to participate in games that promote injustice against female athletes,” without providing further details to name. Nevada’s athletic department said it would not withdraw from the game, citing the state’s equal opportunity laws, but also said no player would be penalized for not participating.
The game was moved to San Jose, Calif., “in the best interests of both programs,” the teams said in a joint statement — without further explanation — before Nevada opted for the foregoing.
So far this season, Southern Utah, Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State and now Nevada have canceled games. Since Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State and Nevada are members of the Mountain West Conference, these contests are considered lost and count as valuable wins in the league standings for San Jose State.
In a lawsuit filed against the NCAA, plaintiffs cited unspecified reports that claimed there was a transgender player on San Jose State’s volleyball team and even mentioned her by name. While some media outlets have reported these and other details, neither San Jose State nor the withdrawing teams have confirmed that there is a transgender female volleyball player at the school. The Associated Press is withholding the player’s name because she has not publicly commented on her gender identity and declined an interview request through school officials.
More on the San Jose State question and what’s at stake:
Who is involved?
The Independent Council on Women’s Sports is sponsoring a lawsuit against the NCAA for allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports. It’s a measure taken under the landmark 1972 federal anti-discrimination law known as Title IX, which aims to “eliminate sex discrimination against women in college sports.” Riley Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer and activist who advocates against trans women in women’s sports, is the plaintiff.
Title IX prohibits sexual discrimination in federally funded education.
San Jose State senior setter and co-captain Brooke Slusser joined the lawsuit as a plaintiff on Monday.
Slusser said in a recent filing that her teammate hit the volleyball with more force than others on the team and that she and several teammates not named in the lawsuit were afraid of sustaining a concussion from punches throughout practice this season suffer head from a volleyball.
A political issue
A 2023 Gallup poll found that 69% of Americans believe trans athletes should only be allowed to compete on teams that correspond to their gender assigned at birth, an augment from 61% in 2021.
As the election campaign turns on its head, many Republicans are relying on transgender-targeted rhetoric and ads to energize their conservative base.
The Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have issued public statements supporting the team cancellations, citing fairness in women’s sports. Last week, Trump was asked what could be done about transgender athletes in women’s sports and he replied, “They just ban it.” The president bans it. You just won’t let it happen.”
Kadence Otto, a sports management professor at Western Carolina University, saw hypocrisy in politicians’ objections that bans were necessary to protect women.
“There are the same politicians who say women can’t control their own bodies, right? On the question of their own right to have a child or not,” Otto said.
What does San Jose State say?
San Jose State coach Todd Kress said the extra attention has put a strain on his team, which is trying to reach the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2001.
“They’re getting hate messages, which to me is completely ridiculous,” said Kress, whose team is 11-3 overall this season. “Do you want your student-athlete, your daughter, to be subjected to the same type of hate that you dish out?”
Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez recently told the AP that the unrest concerns her.
“It breaks my heart because it’s people, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of negative attention on a national level,” Nevarez said. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”
How do some opposing players feel?
Gaines posted a photo on social media of female volleyball players wearing t-shirts that read “BOYcott” at Utah State. The Aggies lost Wednesday’s game. Nevada players held a team meeting to discuss the school’s decision to play San Jose State before the venue was moved from Nevada to California and before Thursday’s game was canceled by the Wolf Pack.
“We have decided that we will stand in solidarity with other teams that have already lost and that we will not participate in a game that promotes gender discrimination or injustice against female athletes,” Nevada senior Sia Liilii told the OutKick website of Fox Corp.
Colorado State also held a team meeting and decided to participate.
“It’s an incredibly complex and controversial topic,” Rams coach Emily Kohan said after her team handed San Jose State its first loss of the season on Oct. 3. “I’m really proud of our team leading with kindness and continuing to develop their strengths, themselves and what’s important to them.”
How did it get to this point?
Some sports associations, legislatures and school districts have sought in recent years to restrict the ability of transgender athletes, particularly transgender girls and women, to compete in accordance with their gender identity.
She and her supporters say the participation of transgender women encroaches on the space that Title IX created for women and girls. And they argue – in a controversial point – that trans women have a natural physical advantage over cisgender women.
In 2022, swimmer Lia Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship. The lawsuit Gaines is involved in details how she and other swimmers felt when they learned they were in the Championships this season in Atlanta would share a locker room with Thomas. Thomas swam to Pennsylvania. Before her gender transition, she competed for Penn’s men’s team.
World Aquatics has effectively banned transgender women from competing in women’s competitions. World Athletics, the governing body of track and field, has done the same. In 2022, the NCAA revised its guidelines on transgender athlete participation, adding domestic and international sports rules to its own rules.
These rules came into force this year. Among them, USA Volleyball guidelines apply to NCAA competitors in the sport. USA Volleyball says a trans woman must suppress testosterone for 12 months before competing, and the NCAA has reported no issues with San Jose State.
Advocates for transgender athletes argue, among other things, that sweeping restrictions exaggerate the prevalence of the problem, citing some prominent examples like Thomas.
Do trans women have an advantage in sports?
Proponents and opponents of restrictions each point to circumscribed studies to support their respective positions. The science is still in its infancy, said Joanna Harper, a postdoctoral researcher studying transgender athletic performance at Oregon Health and Science University.
Trans women, on average, are taller, stronger and stronger than cisgender women, even after hormone therapy, Harper said. But they may also have disadvantages.
“Their larger statures are now fueled by reduced muscle mass and reduced aerobic capacity, and that could lead to disadvantages in things like speed, endurance, recovery, etc.,” she said.
An significant nuance that is often overlooked, she said, is whether a trans woman went through male puberty – with lots of testosterone – and then transitioned, or whether she went through female puberty with the support of hormone therapy that suppressed testosterone production.
“There are some obvious differences between trans women who have gone through male puberty and those who have not,” Harper said.
In anti-trans rhetoric, transgender girls and women are often portrayed as “biological men.” But that’s not the case, Harper said.
“Human biology, sexual biology, is complicated and involves many factors,” Harper said. “And there is no general agreement on what exactly these factors are.”
What does Title IX say?
In April, President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration finalized novel rules in Title IX to clarify that it also prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
The government originally had a plan to ban transgender athletes entirely, but postponed it during an election year. Ban advocates have complained that even the final rule requires schools to allow transgender participation in sports, even though it does not specifically mention sports.
The fate of the novel rule is uncertain. Officials in many states — including California, home of San Jose State — have filed lawsuits to prevent that, backed by federal court rulings. The U.S. Supreme Court majority wrote in August that it declined to challenge those rulings.
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This story has been corrected to say in the last paragraph that officials in many states sued, rather than judges in many states sued.
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Associated Press writer Deepti Hajela, AP sports writers Mark Anderson and Janie McCauley and freelancer Glen Rosales contributed to this report.
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AP College Sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
