Student athletes claim Title IX violation over program cuts

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(The Center Square) – Three wrestlers at California Baptist University have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the school’s decision to eliminate its men’s wrestling program, arguing it violates Title IX and unfairly discriminates against male athletes.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, comes after the university announced Jan. 2 that it would discontinue its men’s wrestling, golf and swimming and diving teams at the end of the 2025–26 academic year. Women’s athletic programs were not affected.

CBU, an NCAA Division I school in Riverside in Southern California, competes in the Big 12 Conference for wrestling.

The plaintiffs - Paul Kelly, Cooper Shore and Jesse Vasquez, all CBU students and wrestlers - allege the university is using a federal Title IX compliance standard as a pretext to reduce opportunities for men.

The issue is a longstanding 1979 policy interpretation by the U.S. Department of Education that introduced a “three-part test” for Title IX compliance. One prong of the policy evaluates whether athletic participation opportunities are substantially proportionate to overall student enrollment by sex.

Attorneys for the athletes argue the university relied on that proportionality standard to justify eliminating men’s teams in order to align roster spots more closely with the school’s male-female enrollment ratio.

“Instead of doing the hard work or once it just becomes too difficult, they just employ sex-based quotas, which really flouts the entire point of Title IX, which is to ensure there is not sex discrimination and that it's an equal opportunity statute, not a equity focused quota system,” said Caleb Trotter, a senior attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation. Trotter, whose organization is representing the wrestlers, spoke to The Center Square during an exclusive interview..

Trotter said the case could prompt courts to reconsider the three-part test, which he described as encouraging quota-like outcomes. The Pacific Legal Foundation has filed a separate petition to repeal the interpretation, arguing it has distorted Title IX beyond its text and intent.

“Equal opportunity and equality do not mean quotas,” Trotter said. “You cannot single out one sex for worse treatment than the other. And unfortunately, that's what CBU has done here. And we are hopeful that, combined with our Department of Education Petition and this lawsuit, it will spark a fundamental change in how Title IX is viewed and used by universities across the country.”

Supporters of the wrestling program also criticized the decision. Nolan Kistler, a 2018 graduate and former wrestler who now speaks for the Keep CBU Wrestling movement, said athletes are being forced into difficult choices.

“I love this school, and I want it to thrive, but I also disagree with this decision, and I know there are better solutions than eliminating three sports,” Kistler told The Center Square in an interview.

Kistler added that affected athletes have been “left with an ultimatum on whether to transfer and potentially be set back academically or stay here and not do the sport that you love and trained your whole life for.” 

The Center Square reached out to CBU for a comment but has not received a response.