Eight Women File Title IX Appeal to House v. NCAA Settlement

Just days after the House v. NCAA settlement cleared its final hurdle in court, a group of eight female athletes has stepped forward with a powerful challenge—one that reframes this case not through the lens of compensation, but of equity.

The women, hailing from Vanderbilt, the University of Virginia, and the College of Charleston, have filed an appeal arguing that the $2.8 billion backpay portion of the House settlement violates Title IX. Their case, filed through the law firm Hutchinson Black and Cook, targets a foundational question: Can you reform college sports without also reckoning with gender equity?

At the heart of their argument is this: While the House case is technically an antitrust matter, the outcomes it proposes—especially how past damages are distributed—are deeply gendered. The majority of the money is expected to go to football and men’s basketball players. Attorney Ashlyn Hare, who filed the appeal, estimates the payout structure deprives female athletes of $1.1 billion.

“Paying out the money as proposed would be a massive error that would cause irreparable harm to women’s sports,” Hare said.

And here’s where it gets even more frustrating: this problem wasn’t inevitable.

A Political Shift That Cost Equity a Seat at the Table

In the final days of the Biden administration, the Department of Education issued guidance indicating that revenue-sharing with athletes—like what’s laid out in the House settlement—should be subject to Title IX. That would have required schools to offer proportional benefits to women’s sports in exchange for continuing to accept federal funding.

But the incoming Trump administration reversed that guidance. And just like that, what could’ve been a landmark step toward gender parity in this new era of athlete compensation was shelved.

Now, without further federal intervention, or a new court decision, schools can legally distribute new revenue (and backpay) however they choose. And so far, that choice looks lopsided.

“This Isn’t Just About Money. It’s About Values.”

In her decision approving the settlement, Judge Claudia Wilken acknowledged the Title IX concerns—but dismissed them as outside the scope of the case. She argued the court was ruling on antitrust law, not gender equity, and that athletes are still free to file Title IX-specific lawsuits in the future.

But that legal boundary doesn’t erase the larger ethical question: What matters in college sports today?

Is the goal of this evolving system to create wealth for the most visible, already-profitable programs and athletes? Or is it to build a college sports structure that offers opportunity across a broad spectrum—different genders, sports, and socioeconomic backgrounds?

Because what’s playing out right now is unmistakable. The House settlement opens a door to revenue sharing, but the way it’s been structured risks narrowing that benefit to just a sliver of college athletes. The tip of the triangle. The ones already getting the most investment and visibility. Meanwhile, Olympic sports are being cut, women’s teams are getting shortchanged, and the ripple effects are beginning to hit high school and youth sports pipelines.

If this is the new normal, who is college sports for?

It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way

The appeal filed by these eight athletes may not succeed in court—but it does succeed in calling out a massive blind spot in the current reform efforts.

Too much of the focus has been on how to feed the top, and not enough on how to sustain the whole. Without more intentional protections—be it through congressional action, NCAA regulation, or new legal rulings—the system we’re creating could be one where the richest sports grow richer, while everyone else fights for scraps.

There’s a vision of college athletics where football and basketball thrive and rowing, volleyball, soccer, and track athletes have their value recognized. Where opportunity matters as much as revenue. That’s the future I support.

But we’re not going to reach that future by accident. It will take people, like these eight women, who are willing to raise their hands and say: we deserve better.

And they’re right.