Women’s volleyball players sue Mountain West commissioner in transgender controversy

Current and former San Jose State women’s volleyball players are part of a 12-member lawsuit filed against Mountain West and Commissioner Gloria Nevarez for violations of Title IX and First Amendment amid the controversy surrounding transgender Blaire Fleming’s roster status. according to OutKick.

The lawsuit includes Spartans senior Brooke Slusser, suspended assistant coach Melissa Batie-Smooth and players from four other Mountain West schools who forfeited games against San Jose State.

It alleges that Mountain West instituted its Transgender Participation Policy to “chill and suppress the freedom of expression of female athletes,” according to Outkick’s lawsuit.

It also aims to ban Fleming and San Jose State from participating in the conference tournament.

The Independent Council on Women’s Sports is reportedly funding the lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for Colorado. according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

“The NCAA, Mountain West Conference and college athletic directors across the country are failing women,” attorney Bill Bock, who represents the plaintiffs, told Outkick.

“Because the administrators don’t have the courage to do their job, we must ask the federal courts to do their job for them.”

San Jose State has been embroiled in controversy this season due to Fleming’s status on the grid.

Fleming, a redshirt senior from Virginia, is in her third season at San Jose State after transferring from Costal Carolina.

Opposing teams have forfeited matcheswith the school’s website list coming via “no contest” wins against Boise State (September 28), Wyoming (October 5, November 14), Utah State (October 23) and Nevada (October 26).

This lawsuit calls for emergency action before the Mountain West tournament begins on Nov. 27.

It calls for “ordering” both the conference and San Jose State to allow Fleming to play in the tournament, along with disqualifying San Joe State from the bracket.

The lawsuit also calls for Mountain West’s credit teams to be reinstated with losses through forfeitures. Removing these forfeits would reshape the conference tournament.

San Jose State is second in the conference with an 11-5 mark.

This lawsuit alleges that Mountain West created its transgender participation policy on September 27, one day before Boise State was transferred to San Jose State, in response to a “budding controversy.”

“On the information and belief front, the burgeoning controversy, which Commissioner Nevarez apparently believes could prompt women’s volleyball players and teams to exercise their constitutional rights to protest and boycott, has caused the Commissioner and her staff to hastily draft prepared and posted on the MWC website. policy designed to punish First Amendment protests in support of the rights of female volleyball players in the MWC (Mountain West Conference),” the lawsuit reads.

Said policy, stated under Appendix J in the 2024-25 manualstates that schools are responsible for identifying transgender athletes and ensuring their NCAA eligibility.

“The decision as to whether a transgender athlete(s) may participate in intercollegiate athletics for a particular MW (Mountain West) member will be a matter of that individual institution’s judgment in the context of its interaction with the individual, the application of state law, etc.,” the policy reads. “However, an MW Member may not exclude student-athletes from other MW Member Institutions from participation in accordance with the policies set forth herein.”

It also states that for “intraconference” competitions, any transgender athlete declared eligible by the NCAA and on the school’s roster may participate in “all” conference competitions.

“If the team of an MW member institution refuses to participate in an intraconference match against the team of a fellow MW member institution that includes one or more eligible transgender student-athletes, the team refusing to participate will be deemed to have withdrawn from the match to have forfeited,” the policy states. states. “The forfeited team will be credited with a loss and the other team will be credited with a win – for purposes of conference records, standings, tie-break formats and participation in MW Championships.”

The lawsuit also contains details of Batie-Smoose’s Title IX lawsuit in which she alleged that Fleming and an opponent from Colorado State conspired to make Fleming “throw” the game and injure Slusser, who was forthright with Fleming. Colorado State beat San Jose State 3-0 on October 3.

Batie-Smoose also claims head coach Todd Kress gave Fleming “preferential treatment.”

She was suspended by the university after filing the lawsuit.

“The failure of SJSU, Kress and (senior athletics associate director Laura) Alexander to raise properly corroborated allegations of possible ethical misconduct, including conspiracy, throwing a match and attempting to cause Slusser bodily harm, calls for the conclusion that SJSU, Kress and Alexander attempted to punish and retaliate against Slusser for filing Title IX claims that referenced the SJSU team and/or that they did not want the allegations against Fleming would be investigated and/or that they did not want Slusser to be protected from violence,” the lawsuit states.

Slusser, who lived with Fleming, was critical of the university’s handling of the situation and stated that the players were asked not to discuss the matter publicly.

“It’s definitely something I’ve thought about very hard. And I think the hardest part of the whole situation is that this team really loves each other. My best friends are on this team,” Slusser told Outkick in September. “Just the fact that I have to go through this kills me, because the team is full of such loving, caring women, and to put them all through this is absolutely absurd.

“Maybe I only have three months left of playing volleyball. I have already used my transfer, so I cannot transfer again. It was either I walk away from volleyball forever, or I swallow this hard pill, suck it up and play, do what I can for my team and protect them in any way I can.