Quinnipiac women's rugby players file lawsuit to stop program's elimination
More than 20 current and incoming Quinnipiac University women’s rugby players have filed a federal lawsuit against the university, claiming the planned elimination of the varsity program violates Title IX.
On April 14, the university announced that it would eliminate its varsity women’s rugby program at the end of the 2025-26 academic year and replace it with a men’s distance track team. Quinnipiac said that, at the conclusion of the current competitive cycle, the girls’ rugby team would become a club sport.
The lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Connecticut, asks a judge to stop Quinnipiac from eliminating the women’s rugby team while the case moves forward.
The athletes argue that Quinnipiac has treated female athletes unfairly compared to male athletes and that the decision to cut women’s rugby is tied to long-running concerns about gender equity in the athletic department.
“Players allege that Quinnipiac has engaged in long-standing sex discrimination by providing women’s teams with unequal benefits, treatment, and support across key areas of athletics, and that the decision to cut women’s rugby is a retaliatory response to repeated Title IX concerns raised about the treatment of female athletes,” reads the release announcing the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, many players chose Quinnipiac specifically because of its nationally recognized women’s rugby program.
“We chose Quinnipiac because we believed in what this program stood for, and we are fighting to protect that opportunity for current and future athletes,” said Carolyn Melody, one of the plaintiffs and a rising sophomore at Quinnipiac. “We are asking the court to reverse this decision and stop forcing its own athletes to fight for rights they should never have had to defend in the first place.”
Recruits said in the lawsuit that the decision came too late in the recruiting cycle, leaving them with limited opportunities to transfer or find comparable programs elsewhere.
The lawsuit also points to Quinnipiac’s history with Title IX. In 2010, the university was found to be in violation of Title IX’s requirement to provide equal athletic participation opportunities.
The athletes are represented by the Connecticut law firm Christine Brown & Partners.
NBC Connecticut has reached out to Quinnipiac University for comment and is awaiting a response.
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