Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - My Lawsuit Against the NCAA Was Just Dismissed. Here’s Why

00:00:00.000 well we just got a major update in the gains versus ncaa lawsuit

00:00:07.800 a Biden appointed judge just dismissed the case and i'm glad this is exactly what i was hoping

00:00:14.720 would happen it's certainly what i expected would happen let me break it all down for you but before

00:00:20.140 i do it's important to know that as of right now the ncaa can fill an entire women's team an entire

00:00:27.880 roster, women's roster with men. They can award men women's scholarships. This sounds crazy,

00:00:37.100 right, that we're still having this conversation in the year 2026. Despite all of the legislative

00:00:43.480 wins and the victories that we've all celebrated, that I've celebrated, the NCAA can still get away

00:00:50.000 with this because the judge determined that they are not bound by Title IX. They're not subject

00:00:55.720 to Title IX. They don't have to follow federal law. The NCAA isn't subject to President Trump's

00:01:01.940 executive orders, the Department of Education, or any other federal agency over Title IX. And

00:01:07.180 they're still saying publicly and fighting us in court to prove the point that they did nothing

00:01:12.040 wrong by giving men access to our naked bodies in locker rooms while those same men who stared at us

00:01:19.800 naked, expose themselves. That's the position that the NCAA has taken here. If that sounds like

00:01:26.240 perverse, imagine actually being in that locker room and not just having to hear about it. Now,

00:01:32.440 let me break all of this down for you. Some of you might have been following over the past two years

00:01:36.700 the Gaines versus NCAA lawsuit. Honestly, it's not something that I've talked a lot about

00:01:42.340 publicly for a couple of different reasons. Number one, it's been a long process, right?

00:01:46.500 It's very lengthy when you engage in, you know, the court system in the way that we have, especially suing someone like the NCAA with such deep pockets.

00:01:55.760 It prevents people like me, just your average person, your everyday person who doesn't necessarily see themselves as a victim, who doesn't have the financial capacity or the time, quite frankly, to engage in this way.

00:02:08.360 It all feels by design.

00:02:10.500 Anyways, this has been two years fighting the NCAA in court.

00:02:13.900 And I guess for even more background, if you really don't know, my experience and the experience of Division One female swimmers across the nation has been well documented at this point, where the NCAA forced me and my teammates and my other competitors to compete against a man, a six foot four man, who won a national title, making him the fastest woman, woman in air quotes, in the entire country.

00:02:39.260 He still holds, I mean, pool records, meet records, team records.

00:02:43.860 Those are still standing, by the way, not to mention, again, giving him access to our

00:02:47.960 locker room.

00:02:48.860 This was enough for me to sign my name onto the lawsuit to sue the NCAA.

00:02:53.820 Me and 20 other, around 20 other athletes from various universities and college across

00:02:59.040 the nation playing various different sports who had been subjected to the NCAA's harmful

00:03:03.880 policies that would allow for men to take their roster spot, their scholarship, their

00:03:07.940 titles, their trophies, their records. You get it. Again, ad nauseum. We've talked about this,

00:03:12.660 which is why this is all the more crazy that we're still talking about it now. The basis of

00:03:17.500 the lawsuit was that the NCAA violated Title IX. Of course, Title IX, actually, if you don't know

00:03:22.260 about it, if you don't know what Title IX is, go ask your grandma. I bet your grandma knows what

00:03:27.020 Title IX is because it was their generation that fought for Title IX, which I think that's 0.88

00:03:32.240 important in perspective because it wasn't that long ago where women didn't have the ability to

00:03:37.840 compete in sports, certainly not at the collegiate level. Only 50, coming up on actually 55 years

00:03:44.220 ago. So my grandma's generation, they didn't have the same opportunities that we now do. And so I

00:03:50.000 feel indebted to my grandma and to her friends who fought to play basketball at their high school

00:03:57.120 because here I am now because of it. And that's a big reason why I feel such a duty to continue to

00:04:02.200 defend it. Anyways, the basis of our lawsuit was that the NCAA violated Title IX, the federal

00:04:06.820 civil rights law that prevented sex-based discrimination within any educational program

00:04:10.800 that receives federal funds. Well, for the past year in the Gaines v. NCAA lawsuit, we've been

00:04:16.280 in the discovery phase, meaning the judge has been able to view internal conversations, maybe

00:04:21.840 private discussions, the inner workings of the NCAA to see if they are actually bound by Title IX.

00:04:27.980 And what would make them bound or subject to Title IX is if they received federal funds. Well,

00:04:33.180 the judge decided that the NCAA was not subject to Title IX because they didn't find evidence

00:04:38.300 that they received federal funds. There is so much that I could say here, and I don't want to make

00:04:43.240 this a very long, lengthy, boring episode filled with legalese. So I'll just be kind of brief and

00:04:50.360 concise in my explaining of it. It's important to make the distinction early on that the core issue

00:04:54.880 of this lawsuit was not whether what happened to female athletes was fair, or at least not in the

00:05:01.440 phase that we were in. So this ruling or this dismissal that the judge issued, it wasn't

00:05:08.400 necessarily pertaining to the fact that women don't deserve sex-separated sports. That's actually

00:05:13.320 a good thing. It wasn't even a ruling that the NCAA's policy was lawful under Title IX. The

00:05:18.900 question before the court was whether the NCAA itself qualifies as a recipient of federal

00:05:24.360 financial assistance and therefore can be sued under Title IX. And the judge concluded that

00:05:30.160 the evidence did not establish that connection. So basically just like halted our case and said

00:05:35.200 that we couldn't really proceed. So it's not the knock that those on the left are making it out to

00:05:40.080 be like this big defeat for female athletes. No, this isn't really that. They didn't rule on whether

00:05:45.100 what we faced was sex discrimination or not. A couple of points I want to make. The first one

00:05:48.780 being, of course, I disagree with a judge that the NCAA does not receive federal funding. And so do

00:05:55.780 our lawyers. They were able to make several different connections on the NCAA taking taxpayer

00:06:01.040 dollars. In one instance, they conducted concussion testing. There was money allotted from the

00:06:06.080 Department of War or the Department of Defense to the NCAA. Beyond that, this is not the only

00:06:11.280 condition. The NCAA is a controlling authority with almost unilateral control over all collegiate

00:06:19.040 sports. I hope I can make this make sense to you guys because it's taken me a while to kind of

00:06:23.900 learn the inner workings here. The NCAA governs more than 1,100 member institutions, meaning

00:06:31.580 universities and colleges that allegedly, they don't follow it, allegedly are subject to Title

00:06:39.260 IX. So those schools, they do receive federal funds. Now, the NCAA, when talking about leadership

00:06:45.640 and board of governors, is made up of presidents of those universities and colleges. Their job

00:06:51.580 is to create and enforce rules that govern those institutions. Yet the legal question is whether

00:06:57.440 the NCAA itself is sufficiently connected to federal financial assistance to be covered by

00:07:02.800 Title IX. And again, I just hope I can make this make sense to you. You cannot have a system where

00:07:08.240 federally funded universities are required to comply with federal law, but the organization

00:07:12.500 that those universities created to govern college athletics can potentially and certainly do

00:07:19.000 dictate policies affecting those same federally protected rights and then say oh well the law

00:07:24.300 doesn't apply to us that's very like mafia like isn't it i hope you're watching at youtube.com

00:07:30.220 i'm going to make this make sense this is like ncaa for dummies okay you've got these federally

00:07:35.220 funded schools colleges universities over here they all got together the presidents of the

00:07:39.940 universities how can we get around following the law i have an idea let's create a mafia like arm

00:07:46.580 that's job is to create and enforce policy for us to follow. But again, it's us over here. It's

00:07:53.440 still very much us over here, right? The NCAA, the point I'm trying to make is it's not some

00:07:58.520 random private company that happens to have a relationship with the universities. This is the

00:08:03.220 universities. It is the presidents of the universities. It is the governing body those

00:08:08.380 institutions created to regulate college athletics, all in a roundabout mafia-like way

00:08:13.600 to get around following the law. Well, the NCAA has responded to the dismissal of the Gaines

00:08:20.000 versus NCAA lawsuit in a statement. They said the NCAA is proud to continually invest in and

00:08:25.220 expand women's sports. And the NCAA is in full compliance with the Trump administration's

00:08:29.140 executive order on women's sports. Do you see what they're doing here? Right. Do you see what

00:08:35.380 they're doing? They're saying here, oh, we are in compliance with the Trump administration's

00:08:39.660 executive orders, and federal law, you're in compliance because you don't have to follow it.

00:08:44.000 You're complying to nothing. You're complying to nothing, NCAA. And to say that they're proud to

00:08:49.560 continually invest in women's sports while simultaneously fighting me and several dozen

00:08:55.500 other athletes to trample on our rights, our rights to privacy, our rights to safety, 1.00

00:09:00.900 our rights to equal opportunity. Is that what you mean by investing and expanding women's sports?

00:09:06.660 If by women, you mean men who, who claim our identity, then sure. The NCAA is filled with

00:09:13.260 such hogwash. I have never seen a more corrupt organization other than the leering centers in 0.97

00:09:19.020 Minnesota in my entire life. It took me a while to realize this. And I think where the passion

00:09:25.100 comes from is I feel so betrayed. I dedicated my life as cringy as that sounds, especially now as

00:09:32.240 a fully grown adult. I really did. I dedicated my life to the NCAA to compete at and ultimately

00:09:38.700 to be successful at the highest level. I believed they had my best interest at heart. And it was an

00:09:45.600 institution that I loved. And then without even a blink of an eye, they threw our rights as women 1.00

00:09:51.040 entirely out of the window. That's where the passion is coming from. Electrolyte brands are 0.77

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00:10:53.800 off your first order again that's redmond.com slash hydrate using code hydrate or you can click

00:10:58.360 the link in the description scan the qr code or check the pin comment on one hand they like to

00:11:04.520 capitalize on the issue they like to pretend to care about their student athletes in particular

00:11:10.000 their female athletes you've seen the commercials on your tv title nine expanding opportunities for 0.84

00:11:16.820 women at least if you watch football on the weekends you have i remember at that national

00:11:21.360 championships where they forced us to compete against the man they were passing out these

00:11:25.880 shirts the ncaa was it was like these nike shirts to every athlete on the pool deck um again this

00:11:31.060 was in 2022 so this was the 50th anniversary of title nine they gave us these shirts and it said

00:11:35.980 50 years of title nine creating opportunities for women that championship final of the 200

00:11:40.660 freestyle i'm next to a six foot four man and they're talking about creating opportunities

00:11:45.060 for women so they love to pretend to care about their female athletes and and capitalize on title

00:11:50.720 line when it's advantageous for them. But then on the other hand, they know they're not subject 1.00

00:11:54.520 to it. And they're proud, as they said in their statement, to not have to be subject to it.

00:11:59.660 This ruling creates an enormous accountability gap for the NCAA. And I think they've hoodwinked

00:12:06.480 the Trump administration, by the way. They talk about their incompliance. They did this the day

00:12:11.120 after President Trump signed his executive order. They resorted to things like, oh, well, we'll

00:12:15.700 follow what birth certificates say. Birth certificates can be made fraudulent in 44

00:12:19.020 states and across the world. And the NCAA knows that. Not to mention the president and people

00:12:23.460 like Senator Cruz. Actually, it was a pretty big bipartisan effort in the Senate to pass the

00:12:28.780 Protect College Sports Act, which this would ultimately give the NCAA even more authority

00:12:33.760 over college athletics at the exact same moment that the NCAA is telling a federal court that

00:12:40.040 Title IX federal law doesn't apply to it. The NCAA has proven themselves to be on the wrong side

00:12:45.140 of virtually every issue. Eligibility rules, transfer portal, NIL, obviously men and women's 0.99

00:12:51.600 sports. And we want to give them more leeway, more control of the reins. We want to give them 0.98

00:12:57.820 more preemptions to state law. They already said, I mean, clearly they're fighting that they don't

00:13:03.000 have to follow federal law. And now we're telling them they don't have to follow state law too.

00:13:07.640 We're giving it to them in this big wrapped up bill with a bow on it. And it's a bipartisan effort,

00:13:12.900 not to mention we can't pass the SAVE Act. God forbid we have voter ID in this country 0.96

00:13:18.980 to secure our elections, but let's have this bipartisan effort to give the NCAA the most

00:13:24.960 corrupt organization, certainly the most corrupt sporting organization of all time, to give them

00:13:30.440 more control. There's so much money also behind the lobbying of the Protect College Sports Act

00:13:36.720 that in and of itself just makes me feel kind of icky. I've had hesitations from the beginning

00:13:41.560 about the Protect College Sports Act.

00:13:43.100 For 50 years, Canadians have wondered

00:13:45.780 what the names of IKEA furniture mean.

00:13:48.400 Like Natopa, the guardrail for children's beds.

00:13:51.940 Natopa means giving your favorite person room to grow.

00:13:55.780 It means their safety and your piece of...

00:13:57.980 No. In Swedish, Natopa means night monkey.

00:14:03.100 Mom! He's back!

00:14:06.260 IKEA. 50 years of Swedishness at home. 1.00

00:14:09.360 Look, he's wearing little pajamas. 1.00

00:14:11.560 There are some things that are well-intentioned and that do need to be reined in.

00:14:18.420 The NCAA has been like the wild, wild west in trying to navigate the current landscape of college sports.

00:14:25.540 So there are things that do need to be reined in to maintain the competitive nature of and the amateur status of college sports,

00:14:33.700 but also giving athletes the freedom to earn what they deserve to earn.

00:14:38.020 I'm all for that, by the way.

00:14:39.360 right? I'm not coming out as a contrarian to that. It's just, I don't trust the NCAA.

00:14:44.260 They have betrayed all of us. Why would we give them more control? Right. I feel like we should

00:14:48.680 resolve the accountability question first. And historically, when you get the government more

00:14:54.780 involved in things, in this case, college sports, why are we involving the federal government in

00:15:01.380 college sports? I don't know. I think we need to resolve the accountability question first and

00:15:06.940 pass the freaking SAVE Act first. The question that we should be asking ourselves is who is

00:15:12.380 accountable when the NCAA violates the rights of female athletes? Because women can't be told, 1.00

00:15:18.080 we'll just take it up with the NCAA when the NCAA is the very same entity we're saying failed us in 1.00

00:15:24.620 the first place. So what next? What do things look like from here? Well, as it pertains to the

00:15:28.820 Protect College Sports Act, it's already passed the Senate. It will go on to the House. I don't

00:15:33.480 know what the Protect College Sports Act likelihood of passing the House is. I actually

00:15:37.600 think it will be harder to pass than the Senate before it is on President Trump's desk. He's

00:15:41.840 already expressed that he wants to sign this like on college game day, which would be kind

00:15:46.660 of cool if the bill didn't have more holes than Swiss cheese. Private student loan debt

00:15:53.260 in the U.S. is around 300 billion with a B U.S. dollars and roughly 45 billion of that

00:15:59.480 is considered distress for a lot of people that means one thing feeling stuck with no light at

00:16:05.480 the end of the tunnel maybe the payments are too high maybe a cosigner is still on the hook maybe

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00:16:46.020 or you can call today. A better financial future could start with just one conversation.

00:16:51.180 so anyways all this to say the fight is far from over of course we are going to appeal right that

00:16:59.680 was a no-brainer um again that was something that we had planned on when filing the lawsuit because

00:17:04.420 we want this to be heard before the supreme court uh we want it to be established like the law of

00:17:10.200 the land that institutions like the ncaa cannot harm female athletes without accountability and

00:17:16.960 without punishment, right? That's just kind of as simple as that. So we've appealed, it will go to

00:17:21.460 the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. And then if it fails there, or if it's dismissed there,

00:17:27.380 we will hopefully push for the Supreme Court. These things cost money. Unfortunately, I talk

00:17:33.880 about the toll that it takes, like the emotional toll, the mental toll, the time that it takes.

00:17:38.740 But there is a level of finances that are required to sue someone like the NCAA, who has

00:17:46.600 endless money, endless money that their pockets, they will never run dry, especially when they're

00:17:52.980 fighting a bunch of 20, you know, mid 20 year old college age girls. Um, if you feel convicted 0.85

00:18:00.700 and you want to donate, or maybe, you know, someone really rich in your life and they want

00:18:05.560 to donate, you can go to donate to icons.com icon stands for international council on women's

00:18:12.640 sports. Um, we actually just had Kim and Marshy on the podcast on Tuesday to talk about something

00:18:18.440 unrelated. We got word later in the day, it would have been great to have them on to talk about

00:18:22.340 this. Um, we filmed that podcast prior to, um, hearing about this lawsuit anyway. So it's ironic

00:18:28.960 the timing of that episode on Tuesday, um, to this episode. Now, um, all that to say you can

00:18:34.040 go to donate to icons.com. Uh, there's a landing page there with a way to be able to give it's

00:18:41.040 greatly appreciated. Of course, this is not going into anyone's pockets. It's going 100%

00:18:46.580 to the appeal process. Thanks for listening. This is something that you should care about.

00:18:51.740 Whether you were a college athlete yourself, whether you have kids, daughters who play sports,

00:18:57.400 this is something that every single person should care about. Because again, we're talking about

00:19:01.180 the precedent that's being set here. Are women worthy to call themselves champions? Are women 0.98

00:19:07.840 worthy of privacy in areas of undressing. That's what we're suing for. This is a landmark case. 1.00

00:19:13.920 Again, donate to icons.com. My head is up, smile on my face, onwards and upwards. This is just

00:19:20.980 another temporary setback, which is like par for the course these past few years. I say bring it on.

00:19:38.840 There's always more to the conversation, so don't stop here.

00:19:41.700 Subscribe to the channel so you don't miss what's coming next.

00:19:44.360 And click right here for another episode of The Riley Gaines Show.

00:19:47.160 Thanks for watching, and I'll see you guys soon.

Gaines for Girls with Riley Gaines - October 02, 2026

My Lawsuit Against the NCAA Was Just Dismissed. Here’s Why

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