Judge Dismisses Riley Gaines Lawsuit Against NCAA, Rules Title IX Claims Fail Because NCAA Gets No Direct Federal Funds

A federal judge has thrown out the Title IX lawsuit that swimmer Riley Gaines and more than a dozen other female athletes brought against the NCAA. The ruling came Monday, Sept. 28, and it turned on a narrow legal question: does the NCAA itself take federal money?

Judge Tiffany R. Johnson of the Northern District of Georgia said no. "Here, there is no evidence that the NCAA ever received, or could have received, federal funds," she wrote. "Thus, Plaintiffs' Title IX claims cannot proceed."

What the case was about

Gaines and the other plaintiffs, all current or former college athletes, sued in March 2024. The suit named the NCAA and the University of Georgia. It alleged the NCAA violated Title IX's equal-opportunity provisions by letting males who identify as women compete in women's categories and use women's locker rooms.

The Independent Council on Women's Sports, known as ICONS, funded the case. Johnson, a 2024 Biden appointee, found the NCAA keeps funding streams separate from its member universities. Direct receipt of federal financial assistance is a prerequisite for Title IX liability, she ruled.

The decision did not take up the underlying question of whether the NCAA's participation policy is right or wrong. It ended the case before that fight.

The plaintiffs' response

Gaines said in a video posted Tuesday: "What this ruling means is basically the NCAA can put as many men on a women's sporting team as they want. We are going to appeal." She added that the process is "mentally draining, emotionally draining."

ICONS co-founder Kim Jones, a former NCAA All-American tennis player, argued the judge got the law wrong. In her words, the NCAA "is the controlling body of college sports for more than 1,100 member schools, almost all of which are federally funded" and is therefore subject to Title IX.

ICONS also said in a statement that the decision "removes all protections for women in NCAA collegiate competition across the country." That is the group's characterization. The ruling itself addressed only whether the NCAA can be sued under Title IX, and member schools that take federal money remain covered by the law.

Penny Nance, president of Concerned Women for America, called the ruling "appalling and inexcusable." She said that whether or not the NCAA takes federal funds, it benefits directly from 1,100-plus member institutions that must all comply with Title IX. "If the NCAA doesn't comply with Title IX, no university should be allowed to be a member of the NCAA," she said.

Nance also pointed to Senate passage of the Protect College Sports Act. She said the combination of that bill and this ruling shows a gap in federal civil rights law that Congress must close. She said the NCAA is lobbying for federal protections while refusing to protect female athletes.

The compliance dispute

The NCAA, after the win, said it is in "full compliance" with the Trump administration's executive order on women's sports, according to a Daily Wire opinion piece. That piece disputes the claim.

The opinion piece points to Executive Order 14168, signed Jan. 20, 2025. It defines "sex" as "an individual's immutable biological classification as either male or female," and states that "female" means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell. A companion order, "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports," adopts those definitions.

The Daily Wire writer argues the NCAA has not written that definition into its rules and bylaws. It says the association only revised its transgender participation policy to spell out when and how a male who identifies as a woman can play on women's teams. The piece also objects to the NCAA's wording for "sex assigned at birth": "The male or female designation doctors assign to infants at birth, which is marked on their birth records."

The NCAA's position and the op-ed's position cannot both be right. The executive orders' text is public. The NCAA's current bylaws and policy language are the documents that would settle it.

What comes next

Gaines and ICONS have said they will appeal. The legal question they must win is whether the NCAA qualifies as a Title IX-covered entity even without receiving federal dollars directly. Judge Johnson found it does not on this record. The plaintiffs say the appeals court will find otherwise.

Congress is a second track. Nance and CWA are pressing lawmakers to act on the Protect College Sports Act, which the Senate has passed according to CWA. No appeal filing or House action has been reported.