Temporary injunction stops SFA from eliminating women’s sports programs
Posted/updated on: August 4, 2025 at 3:39 am
LUFKIN — A U.S. District Court has ruled in favor of a preliminary injunction, preserving all women’s varsity teams at Stephen F. Austin State University, following a Title IX lawsuit after several sports teams were cut.
“The court finds that the financial burden self-imposed by SFA does not outweigh the harm suffered by plaintiffs. Therefore, the court finds that plaintiffs satisfied their burden for issuance of a preliminary injunction,” the order said.
According to our news partner KETK, this comes a month after several SFA student-athletes filed a class action lawsuit against the university, which had eliminated its varsity women’s beach volleyball team, the Ladyjacks bowling team, and the men’s and women’s golf teams.
“The decision to eliminate the women’s programs was consistent with SFA’s history of sex discrimination in its intercollegiate athletic program,” the lawsuit alleged. “However, the termination of these programs came as a complete surprise to the women on the team and their coaches.”
On Friday, KETK News spoke with Arthur Bryant, lead counsel for the women athletes, who said this is a major victory for them.
“SFA essentially made a business decision quite consciously to violate Title IX,” Bryant said. “To deprive women of equal opportunities to participate in sports, to try to save some money, that’s against the law.”
Bryant said the judge found SFA’s actions against the law and would harm the student-athletes. The sports will now be picked up again beginning of the semester. The injunction will also stop SFA from eliminating any other sports while the case proceeds.
“It reaffirms that schools cannot discriminate against women to save money,” Bryant said. “They cannot consciously violate the law just to keep some dollars in their pockets. When doing so, it would discriminate against women, deprive them of equal opportunities to play sports, and violate Title IX. It is the law of the land, and schools have to respect and follow it.”
Ryann Allison, an upcoming senior at SFA, was a part of the lawsuit and testified against the university’s actions.
“A big part of this is just for women around the country to know that don’t just take no for an answer,” Allison said. “If you think something’s happened, that’s not right, that’s against the law, don’t just sit back. Fight for your rights as a female athlete and as a woman, as a human being.”
While the fight is ongoing, Allison is confident about the legal battle ahead as the preliminary injunction demonstrates that SFA will not remain unchecked.
Stephen F. Austin State University issued the following statement to KETK on Friday night, stating that they plan to appeal the injunction to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals:
“We remain confident in the legality and rationale behind our decision to reduce the number of sports we sponsor. The text of Title IX states that institutions may not discriminate on the basis of sex, and there was no evidence presented that SFA’s decision was based on sex.
The evidence was overwhelming that the decision was based on economics. Prior to the reduction of sports, only the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, institutions with athletics budgets more than ten times greater than ours, sponsored more NCAA Division I sports than SFA among public universities in Texas.
Since there was no evidence that the difficult decision to cut these four teams was based on sex, we maintain that our actions are fully compliant with Title IX requirements. SFA has long been a leader in championing women’s athletics, and we remain committed to continuing that legacy of excellence in our second century.
Our 16 athletics programs, including eight NCAA women’s teams, six NCAA men’s teams and our two predominantly female co-ed cheer and dance teams, make us proud. We look forward to presenting the full merits of our position at the appropriate time as the case proceeds.” Stephen F. Austin State University
