Two funding streams, one university and no federal dollars reaching the NCAA. That finding ended Riley Gaines‘ federal lawsuit against the association on Monday.
U.S. District Judge Tiffany R. Johnson examined a concussion-research partnership between the NCAA and the Defense Department. Both put money into Indiana University for the project.
According to the order, the two kept their funding separate. The department’s money went to the university and other research participants, not to the NCAA.
Johnson, who sits in the Northern District of Georgia, granted the NCAA’s motion for summary judgment on the remaining Title IX claims.
President Joe Biden nominated her to the federal bench in 2024.
“Here, there is no evidence that the NCAA ever received, or could have received, federal funds,” Johnson wrote. “Thus, Plaintiffs’ Title IX claims cannot proceed.”
The athletes had offered three other routes to establish federal funding.
They argued the NCAA received money indirectly, controlled entities that took federal dollars, and became a recipient through reimbursements for certain employee travel expenses. Johnson rejected all three.
Title IX liability requires an organization to receive federal financial assistance, and the ruling addressed only that threshold question.
Johnson did not decide whether the NCAA’s former transgender-athlete policy constituted sex discrimination.
Gaines and the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, known as ICONS, plan to appeal. The plaintiffs have 30 days to file a notice with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
“This momentary setback will not deter me or other women athletes in the least,” Gaines said in a statement. “Rest assured, we will be appealing this decision. We are on the side of truth. I am confident Americans will rally to our side to fight the NCAA.”
Gaines and more than a dozen current and former female college athletes filed the suit in March 2024.
They alleged the NCAA violated Title IX by adopting and enforcing policies that allowed biological males to compete in women’s events and use women’s locker rooms.
The case centered on the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships at Georgia Tech.
Former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas won a title there, becoming the first openly transgender athlete to take an NCAA Division I championship.
Gaines, then competing for the University of Kentucky, tied Thomas for fifth in the 200-yard freestyle final.
She has said she and other female swimmers shared a locker room with Thomas at the championships.
Swimmers Kylee Alons, Reka Gyorgy, Kaitlynn Wheeler and Grace Countie also joined the suit, as did former San Jose State volleyball player Brooke Slusser and former Roanoke College swimmer Lily Mullens.
Johnson had already thrown out the athletes’ constitutional and bodily-privacy claims, along with their claims against the University System of Georgia, Georgia Tech and other state defendants.
In September 2025, she kept the Title IX claims against the NCAA alive after finding the athletes had plausibly alleged federal assistance through the Defense Department partnership.
The court then authorized limited discovery on that relationship.
Monday’s decision follows the Supreme Court’s 1999 ruling in NCAA v. Smith.
The justices held in that case that the NCAA did not fall under Title IX simply by collecting dues from member schools that received federal funds.
ICONS co-founder Kim Jones said the group believes Johnson erred.
She predicted the appeals court will find that Title IX covers the NCAA, which governs more than 1,100 member colleges and universities.
“We will not give up our fight for women and girls’ rights in sports,” Jones said.
“ICONS will support an appeal by Riley Gaines, Brooke Slusser, Kylee Alons, Reka Gyorgy, Kaitlynn Wheeler, Grace Countie, Ainsley Erzen, Lily Mullens and the many other young women who depended on the NCAA to protect their equal opportunities but were let down by the NCAA.”
The NCAA no longer uses the policy the lawsuit challenged.
In February 2025, after an executive order from President Donald Trump, the organization changed its rules to bar athletes assigned male at birth from women’s teams.
Those athletes may still practice with women’s teams and receive certain benefits tied to practicing.
The Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act on Monday by a 77-22 vote, sending it to the House. Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., lead the bipartisan measure.
The NCAA backs it. It would set national rules on athlete compensation, transfers and eligibility, and it would give certain antitrust protections to the NCAA, conferences and schools.
ICONS co-founder Marshi Smith responded to the ruling by urging members of Congress to oppose the bill.
“The NCAA’s refusal to recognize its responsibility to uphold women’s rights means the NCAA cannot be trusted to regulate anyone’s sports — men’s or women’s,” Smith said.
She also said: “The NCAA cannot be trusted to receive broad new powers that it will only use to inflict further harm upon women.”
