Boise State volleyball again refuses to face transgender athlete. Will forfeits cost team?

BOISE — Boise State announced that the volleyball team would not play its scheduled home game against San Jose State on Nov. 21, the second time this season the Broncos chose to go with an automatic forfeit to the Spartans, having done so for the scheduled Sept. 28 contest as well.

“Boise State volleyball will not play its scheduled home match on Thursday, Nov. 21 against San Jose State,” a statement on BSU’s website read. “Per Mountain West Conference policy, the Conference will record the match as a forfeit for Boise State.”

Boise State released the statement at 5 p.m. Friday, about an hour before the Broncos’ football game against San Diego State at Albertsons Stadium. The athletic department canceled the September game set for San Jose in a similar fashion, releasing just a brief statement.

Though no official reason has ever been voiced by the school, it’s not a secret. A player for the Spartans joined a lawsuit against the NCAA and outed a transgender athlete on their team, which resulted in other Mountain West forfeits by Utah State, Wyoming and Nevada — not to mention turmoil within the San Jose State program.

Associate head volleyball coach Melissa Batie-Smoose was suspended last weekend and filed a Title IX complaint against the school earlier this week.

She spoke to an online outlet and said a toxic culture had been created by having the transgender player on the team.

Following the first Boise State cancellation, numerous figures in Idaho politics, such as Republican Gov. Brad Little and Joshua Whitworth, executive director of the Idaho State Board of Education, applauded the decision.

Both referenced Little’s Defending Women’s Sports Act banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports.

The forfeits by Boise State have left it with a 7-6 conference record with five matches left in the regular season; the Broncos are in sixth place in the Mountain West standings. San Jose State’s league record is 10-3, right behind 10-2 Colorado State.

Only the top six teams in the conference qualify for the Mountain West volleyball tournament in late November, and Boise State is just a half-game ahead of Wyoming, which holds the tiebreaker with the Broncos. The two teams meet again in a key matchup on Thursday in Boise.

Wyoming forfeited its first match with San Jose State this year but has not yet done so in the second meeting, which is scheduled for next week.

If the Broncos do qualify for the Mountain West postseason, there is the question of what happens if they are paired in the bracket vs. the Spartans.

Boise State’s athletic department has not commented on the cancellations beyond statements, so it’s not known how that would be handled. Boise State played San Jose State twice in 2023, winning 3-0 both times. The athlete at the center of this year’s controversy played in one of those matches.