Riley Gaines’ long-running legal fight with the NCAA has reached another major turning point. A federal judge has dismissed Gaines’ lawsuit challenging the organization’s former policies on transgender athletes, with Gaines saying she plans to appeal.
But how did we get here? Let’s break down the Gaines case.
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How It Started
In March 2024, former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines and more than a dozen other athletes sued the National Collegiate Athletic Association, arguing that its policies allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports violated their rights under Title IX.
The lawsuit centered heavily on the 2022 NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships at Georgia Tech.
That was where Gaines competed against Lia Thomas, a transwoman swimmer from the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas won the 500-yard freestyle and became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I championship. Gaines and Thomas also tied for fifth in the 200-yard freestyle final. The lawsuit argued that the NCAA’s policies violated female athletes’ Title IX protections.
At the time, NCAA President Charlie Baker told a Senate panel that he was aware of fewer than 10 transgender athletes competing in college sports out of roughly 510,000 NCAA athletes, according to The Hill.
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What Is Title IX?
Title IX is a federal civil rights law enacted in 1972. It prohibits discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. The law is broader than sports. It applies to education programs and activities generally, including athletics at institutions covered by the statute. That funding requirement became especially important in Gaines’ case.
The NCAA Changed Its Policy
While the lawsuit was moving through court, the NCAA changed its transgender participation policy.
On February 6, 2025, the NCAA announced that athletes assigned male at birth could no longer compete on NCAA women’s teams, according to Politico. The policy still allows those athletes to practice with women’s teams and receive certain benefits while practicing. The NCAA said the change followed President Donald Trump’s executive order concerning transgender participation in women’s sports.
The policy applies immediately and replaced the NCAA’s previous sport-by-sport approach.
So, by the time the case reached its latest stage, the NCAA was no longer operating under the policy that Gaines and the other plaintiffs originally challenged.
What Happened to Gaines’ Case?
On September 28, 2026, U.S. District Judge Tiffany R. Johnson dismissed the remaining Title IX claims against the NCAA. The key issue was not whether the NCAA’s former transgender-athlete policy violated Title IX. Instead, the court focused on whether Title IX applied to the NCAA in the first place.
Judge Johnson concluded that the plaintiffs had not established that the NCAA received federal financial assistance, which is required for Title IX to apply. The judge wrote that there was no evidence the NCAA had received or could have received federal funds.
Importantly, the ruling did not determine that the NCAA’s former transgender-athlete policy was or was not discriminatory under Title IX. The case was dismissed because the court found the necessary federal-funding connection had not been established.
What Happens Next?
Gaines has said she plans to appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Her statement said the dismissal would not deter her or the other plaintiffs from continuing the legal fight.
The NCAA, meanwhile, said through spokesperson Meghan Wright that the organization is “proud to continually invest in and expand women’s sports” and is in full compliance with the Trump administration’s executive order on women’s sports.
For now, the Gaines lawsuit has ended at the federal district court level. Whether the 11th Circuit will hear an appeal, and what happens if it does, will determine the next chapter of this closely watched LGBTQ+ sports case.