A federal lawsuit that Riley Gaines and more than a dozen current and former female college athletes filed against the NCAA has been dismissed, with the court finding the organization is not subject to Title IX. The plaintiffs now have 30 days to appeal, and Gaines says they intend to do exactly that.
According to the 930 WFMD report on the ruling, U.S. District Judge Tiffany R. Johnson found that evidence did not establish the NCAA as a recipient of federal financial assistance, meaning Title IX claims could not proceed against the organization. That distinction matters because Title IX, per the U.S. Department of Education, prohibits sex-based discrimination only in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance — and Johnson's ruling turned on whether the NCAA itself fits that definition.
An ICONS release framed the outcome differently, saying Judge Johnson accepted the NCAA's argument that it is not subject to Title IX and dismissed the case outright. A separate legal summary from a law firm, however, described an earlier posture in which the court concluded that the plaintiffs' Title IX claims against the NCAA could continue because of allegations tied to federally funded concussion research — a conflict in the public record that has not been resolved by any court document provided in this reporting.
What the Lawsuit Originally Alleged
Gaines and the other plaintiffs filed suit in March 2024, alleging the NCAA violated their Title IX rights by permitting biological males to compete in women's events and use women's locker rooms. The lawsuit named Kylee Alons, Reka Gyorgy, Kaitlynn Wheeler, Grace Countie, Brooke Slusser and Lily Mullens, among others. Slusser is a former San Jose State volleyball player, and Mullens is a former Roanoke College swimmer, per the same WFMD account.
The case grew out of the 2022 NCAA Division I women's swimming and diving championships at Georgia Tech, where Lia Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I title. Gaines has said she tied Thomas for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle final and that female swimmers were required to share a locker room with Thomas during that meet, according to WFMD's report.
The Court's Reasoning on Federal Funding
WFMD reported that Judge Johnson rejected several arguments the athletes made for why the NCAA should be treated as an indirect recipient of federal funds — including claims that the NCAA controlled entities receiving federal money and that it became a funding recipient through employee travel reimbursements. Johnson reportedly wrote that the NCAA never received or could have received federal funds, and cited a 1999 Supreme Court precedent holding that the NCAA is not subject to Title IX merely because it collects dues from member institutions that themselves receive federal funds.
The athletes had also alleged the NCAA received federal assistance through a concussion-research partnership with the Department of Defense, and the court reportedly had authorized limited discovery into that relationship. But per WFMD, Johnson found that the NCAA and the Defense Department maintained separate funding streams for research, with the department providing money to Indiana University and other research participants rather than to the NCAA directly. The dennie firm's summary of the case separately cites an allegation that the NCAA received at least $85 million in federal funding for concussion studies involving 37,000 student-athletes — a figure this reporting could not independently verify.
Johnson also dismissed the plaintiffs' constitutional and bodily-privacy claims, along with claims against the University System of Georgia, Georgia Tech and other state defendants, WFMD reported. According to the dennie firm's legal summary, the plaintiffs' claims for prospective injunctive and declaratory relief against Georgia and Georgia Tech were separately dismissed as moot after Georgia's governor signed the Riley Gaines Act in April 2025, a law barring Georgia colleges and universities from competitions where biologically male athletes could compete against biologically female athletes.
Gaines and ICONS Vow to Appeal
Gaines said the ruling won't slow her down. “This momentary setback will not deter me or other women athletes in the least. Rest assured, we will be appealing this decision,” she said, according to ICONS. The plaintiffs have 30 days to file a notice of appeal with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, per the same release.
ICONS co-founder Kim Jones said the organization believes Johnson's ruling was wrong. “We believe the district judge erred and that the Court of Appeals will find that the NCAA,” Jones said, per ICONS, which added that it funded the underlying lawsuit and will support an appeal by Gaines, Slusser, Alons, Gyorgy, Wheeler, Countie, Ainsley Erzen and Mullens. The ACLU, which has separately tracked the case, describes the plaintiffs as seeking to force the NCAA to adopt a nationwide and categorical ban on transgender athletes competing in women's college sports — a characterization the organization has used in opposing the suit. WFMD reported the NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the dismissal or the planned appeal.
Where the Eligibility Fight Stands Now
WFMD reported that the NCAA changed its rules in February 2025 to prohibit athletes assigned male at birth from competing on women's teams, though those athletes may still practice with women's teams and receive certain practice-associated benefits under the current policy. The NCAA governs more than 1,100 member colleges and universities, according to the same report.
The dismissal lands alongside a separate legislative push in Congress. WFMD reported that the U.S. Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act by a 77-22 vote, a bipartisan proposal led by Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell that would establish national rules governing athlete compensation, transfers and eligibility while providing certain antitrust protections to the NCAA, conferences and schools. The legislation has been sent to the U.S. House. Marshi Smith urged Congress to oppose the bill, saying the NCAA cannot be trusted to regulate men's or women's sports, per WFMD's report.
Separately, former Rochester Institute of Technology sprinter and captain Caroline Hill has publicly identified herself as Track Athlete A in the Gaines litigation, writing in a New York Post opinion piece that Sadie Schreiner broke both her 200-meter and 300-meter records at Schreiner's first NCAA meet competing in the women's category. Schreiner finished third in the 200-meter final at the 2024 NCAA Division III outdoor track and field championships, according to the same piece.
