Federal Court Orders Concordia University Irvine to Preserve Women’s Teams While Female Athletes’ Title IX Sex Discrimination Class Action Proceeds

United States District Court Judge Fred W. Slaughter issued a 29-page Order granting Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction on Friday barring Concordia University Irvine (“CUI”) from “eliminating its women’s swimming & diving team, its women’s tennis team, and all other women’s varsity teams at CUI for the 2025-26 academic year, and for the duration of this case or until further order of this court.” The Order continues: “To the extent that those teams have already been eliminated, CUI shall immediately reinstate them, and provide the teams with funding, staffing, and all other benefits commensurate with their status as varsity intercollegiate teams.”

The order was a complete and sweeping victory on the motion for the women athletes.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, charges CUI with violating Title IX by depriving women of equal opportunities to participate in intercollegiate athletics. The school announced the elimination of the women’s swimming & diving and tennis teams, along with the men’s teams, in May, when it was already providing women with far fewer opportunities to participate.

CUI female athletes Mikayla Barre, Jessica Bear, Kiera Gutierrez, Bryn Johnson, Alexandra Leland, Ruby McCullough, Aliyah Treadwell, and Carissa Ward are also plaintiffs in the case.

“The court’s thorough, compelling decision confirms what we said from the start: CUI’s decision to eliminate the women’s swimming & diving and tennis teams was a flagrant violation of Title IX,” said Arthur Bryant of Arthur Bryant Law, P.C., in Oakland, CA, lead counsel for the women. “According to the most recent publicly available information, women were 59% of CUI’s undergraduates in 2024-25, but they were given only 51.2% of the opportunities to participate in varsity sports. CUI needs to add about 100 opportunities for women to reach gender equity. It should not be eliminating any women’s teams.”