As volleyball debate rages, Boise State stays on the sidelines

BOISE (IdahoEdNews.org) — In the transgender athletics culture war, the two sides are distinguishable not by uniforms, but by rhetoric. Opponents are divided not by a 7-foot tall net, but by ideology.

But after eight weeks, two forfeits and one federal lawsuit, one thing is clear. Boise State University is staying as far from the fight as possible. Boise State isn’t taking on the Mountain West Conference, the governing body (for now) for Bronco athletics.

Yes, Boise State was the first of four Mountain West schools to forfeit a volleyball match with San José State — which, according to rampant but unconfirmed accounts, has a transgender player on its women’s roster. And yes, two Boise State players have signed onto a far-reaching and fiery federal lawsuit against San José State and the Mountain West.

RELATED | Boise State volleyball players join lawsuit against Mountain West on transgender player

Those players, Kiersten and Katelyn Van Kirk, two sisters from Bozeman, Mont., are on their own. Boise State administrators have remained silent about the lawsuit, and the university is staying on the sidelines. The forfeits — an administrative decision, according to Boise State — are as far as the university seems willing to go.

The federal lawsuit, filed on Nov. 13, restates the critics’ case against San José State. The 12 plaintiffs, including the Van Kirk sisters, say San José State has unfairly benefited by having a stronger and more explosive transgender athlete in its lineup. They say San José State has picked up six crucial conference wins via forfeit, while maintaining a “charade of silence” about the player in question. This player, in exchange, has benefited by unfairly receiving a woman’s athletic scholarship, in violation of Title IX, the landmark federal education law to protect women’s rights.

But the 132-page lawsuit also lays out a lengthy case against the Mountain West. The conference’s “transgender participation policy,” and the hammer of forfeits, left San José State’s opponents with an untenable choice. They could take a forfeit that counts against them in the conference standings. Or they could take to the court — and place their own players at increased risk, since a single high-velocity spike could result in a career-ending concussion.

The teams that chose the latter course compromised their student-athletes’ safety, and their First Amendment rights, according to the lawsuit. “The MWC (transgender participation policy) was specifically adopted to chill protests and other expressive conduct, including boycotts, on a women’s rights issue.”

And, says the lawsuit, the conference hasn’t silenced only its players. “There is a plain undercurrent within the MWC … that school employees who support women’s volleyball protests will be punished.”

Perhaps that might explain Boise State’s near-total silence since Sept. 27, when it tersely announced the first of two forfeits. The university has never even publicly talked about the reasons behind its forfeits — although it quickly became unmistakably clear that the transgender athletics issue drove its decisions.

Asked for comment last week on the lawsuit, Boise State spokesman Chris Kutz deferred to … the Mountain West. He pointed out that the conference, and not Boise State, is a defendant in the case.

But others have been far more willing to take on the Mountain West.

On Monday, 13 members of Congress from Idaho, Wyoming and Utah urged Mountain West Commissioner Gloria Nevarez to ban transgender athletes from playing in women’s sports.

“The Mountain West Conference’s failure to prohibit biological males from competing in women’s sports is unfair to the women and girls who have worked tirelessly to compete at the collegiate level,” said the letter, co-signed by Idaho’s all-Republican congressional delegation. “We applaud the bravery of these female athletes and the universities in our home states for taking a stand to preserve Title IX when the Mountain West Conference would not.”

Also on Monday, Utah State University filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit. Not without some pressure: Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and legislative leaders had publicly urged Utah State to sign onto the lawsuit.

In a motion this week, attorneys for Utah State said that a “majority” of its volleyball players supported the decision to forfeit an Oct. 23 match with San José State.

Boise State has filed no similar motion to intervene in the lawsuit, according to an Idaho Education News review of court filings. And unlike Utah State, Boise State appears to be making this call on its own.

State officials have not asked Boise State to intervene, Kutz said Wednesday evening. Attorney General Raúl Labrador has not discussed the lawsuit with Boise State, but spokesman Daniel Estes said Labrador “supports and encourages BSU to stand up for the safety of their players.” In a statement to EdNews Wednesday, spokeswoman Joan Varsek said Gov. Brad Little “continues to urge all schools and universities in Idaho to keep up the fight to protect female athletes.” However, Varsek’s statement did not say whether Little had urged Boise State to intervene in the lawsuit.

Boise State’s stance on the lawsuit — compared to Utah State’s — is significant for another reason. Boise State and Utah State are Mountain West short-timers; both universities have agreed to join a reconstituted Pac 12 Conference in 2026. Boise State’s move isn’t final, since it still requires State Board of Education approval. But before the volleyball issue even surfaced, Boise State had already signaled that it has no long-term interest in the Mountain West — and did so in about as splashy a fashion as possible.

Oral arguments in the lawsuit were scheduled for Thursday morning, and both the case and the timetable put the Mountain West on the defensive. The plaintiffs want a judge to declare San José State’s volleyball team ineligible — or rescind the forfeit wins that have bolstered San José State’s spot in the conference standings. And they want the court to act before the Mountain West’s conference tournament next week.

Boise State is an interested observer in these proceedings. But an observer nonetheless.

This article was originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on November 21, 2024