riley gaines spent two years suing the ncaa over a trans swimmer and lost on a technicality about concussion research. we'll allow it.

via the court's ruling in Gaines v. NCAA, OutKick, Erin in the Morning, PinkNews and The Advocate

Riley Gaines' lawsuit against the NCAA did not end in a courtroom showdown over women's sports. It ended in a ruling about a concussion study the NCAA co-funded with the Pentagon in 2014.

On Sept. 28, U.S. District Judge Tiffany R. Johnson in Atlanta, a Biden appointee per OutKick and Erin in the Morning, granted the NCAA summary judgment and ordered the clerk to "CLOSE this case," the ruling says. Most outlets are calling it a dismissal. Technically she ruled for the NCAA on the one question left standing.

what the ruling actually decided

Gaines and other current and former college athletes sued in March 2024 over the 2022 NCAA swimming championships, where Lia Thomas competed; Gaines tied Thomas for fifth in the 200-yard freestyle, and Thomas won the 500, OutKick and PinkNews report. By last September, the judge had thrown out everything against the NCAA except the Title IX claims, and Title IX only binds organizations that receive federal money. So the entire case came down to whether the NCAA does.

The plaintiffs pointed to a research agreement the NCAA signed with the Defense Department in 2014 for concussion studies, plus travel reimbursements. The judge was unmoved. "Here, there is no evidence that the NCAA ever received, or could have received, federal funds," she wrote. "Thus, Plaintiffs' Title IX claims cannot proceed." The money, she found, went to the research, not to the NCAA: "the NCAA was not the ultimate recipient of federal funds; the CARE studies were."

She never ruled on whether the NCAA's old trans-inclusion policy was fair or lawful, and the NCAA had already changed that policy in February 2025, the day after President Trump's executive order, limiting women's competition to athletes "assigned female at birth only."

what riley gaines says next

"If the NCAA isn't subject to Title IX, then WHO is? Of course, we will appeal. The goal from the beginning was to get this case before the Supreme Court," Gaines posted on X. The appeal goes to the 11th Circuit, The Advocate and PinkNews report.

A small note of sympathy for the NCAA's lawyers, who spent two years being cast as the villains of a culture war and won by proving their client never took the government's money.