You have /5 articles left.
Sign up for a free account or log in.
Seventeen female athletes have filed a Title IX lawsuit against San Diego State University alleging they were shorted $1.2 million as a disproportionate amount of financial aid flowed to male athletes.
Bailey & Glasser LLP, one of the law firms representing the plaintiffs, claims that female athletes were deprived of $1.2 million in financial aid in the last two years. In 2019–20, female athletes made up 58.12 percent of the athletes at SDSU and received 50.57 percent of athletic financial aid; in 2020–21 women comprised 57.22 percent of SDSU athletes yet received 50.64 percent of athletic financial aid, according to the class-action Title IX lawsuit filed Tuesday.
In a news release, Bailey & Glasser LLP stated that “if 60% of the athletes are women, they are supposed to get close to 60% of the athletic financial aid awarded.” In addition to paying out lost financial aid, the firm wrote that SDSU must “provide equal athletic financial aid in the future.”
SDSU provided Inside Higher Ed with an email response to the lawsuit, stating, “SDSU’s funding level for women’s scholarships is second-highest among Mountain West schools and among the highest in California and the NCAA. The truth is that SDSU awards approximately 95% of all possible scholarships permitted under NCAA rules for both its men’s and women’s teams, with the remaining fraction explained by legitimate reasons within SDSU coaches’ discretion. NCAA rules prohibit all schools, including SDSU, from giving unlimited athletic scholarships. To exceed these limits would make student-athletes ineligible to compete.”
