After Quinnipiac University decided to eliminate its women’s volleyball team in 2009, the members of the team and their coach sued the university for violating Title IX, the law that bars discrimination on the basis of sex in schools that receive federal funds. After a trial, the federal district court in Connecticut ruled in their favor, holding that Quinnipiac was denying its female students equal opportunity to participate in varsity athletics, and Quinnipiac appealed. The National Women’s Law Center, on behalf of 20 women’s and civil rights organizations, submitted a brief in support of the female athletes, which discusses several issues that are key to efforts to ensure that girls and women receive equal opportunity to participate in sports, including the standard for determining whether a school is providing “substantially proportionate” opportunity to its female students, that cheerleading cannot be treated as a varsity sport at this time, and that schools should not be permitted to manipulate their rosters to make it appear that they are complying with Title IX.
