Quinnipiac Rugby

Come support today! Stay tuned for the initial injunction ruling which we will hopefully be getting today!

Tomorrow matters.

The Quinnipiac Women’s Rugby players return to federal court as they fight to preserve their varsity program while their Title IX lawsuit moves forward.

If you’re in Connecticut, come stand with the athletes.

📍 Brien McMahon Federal Building
915 Lafayette Blvd, Bridgeport, CT (4th Floor)

🕐 Hearing: 1:00 PM
⏰ Arrive by 12:30 PM to allow time for security.

Your presence sends a message that these athletes are not standing alone.

Let’s fill the courtroom.

Quinnipiac Rugby Title IX Case Leaves Judge Feeling 'Terrible'

By Aaron Keller ·

Law360, Bridgeport, Conn. (June 24, 2026, 9:10 PM EDT) -- Quinnipiac University and 23 rugby players accusing the school of Title IX violations should focus summations on a retaliation claim, not a discrimination claim, because retaliation presents a "stickier" legal question based on facts gleaned during a two-day hearing, a Connecticut federal judge said Wednesday.

Speaking after the final witness in the athletes' bid for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Kari A. Dooley criticized the Division I college for the way it notified varsity female athletes that their rugby team was being downgraded to a club sport. Based on testimony from two players, Judge Dooley said the process was "not optimal," "not good optics" and arguably "unfair," but she stopped short of saying the students might win legal relief.

"I feel terrible for all of them," the judge said of the athletes, but the case "has to tie back to a Title IX violation, and that's a little harder," she added.

Current and recruited players want Judge Dooley to return the program to varsity status while additional litigation plays out. A Tuesday hearing on the athletes' bid for a restraining order spilled into an unscheduled second day of testimony Wednesday; the parties agreed to return Friday for oral arguments.

"It's going to be a hot bench," Judge Dooley warned both sides.

According to the judge, the students appear to have proven irreparable harm, but they face a more difficult challenge proving likely success on the merits.

"It's an extremely difficult decision based on the evidence on record," the judge said.

The parties also contest the proper standard for proving causation, Judge Dooley said. Quinnipiac wants the judge to apply a but-for standard, forcing the students to show their former coach's prior complaints about what she claimed were unequal facilities played a direct role in the team's downgrade, the judge noted. The students want to show only that the complaints were a motivating factor in the school's decision to downgrade the team, Judge Dooley said. The U.S. Supreme Court has not clarified the correct standard, the judge noted.

Judge Dooley said the but-for standard would pose a formidable hurdle for the athletes, since former head coach Rebecca Carlson's complaints occurred in 2017 and 2018, years before the women's rugby program's mid-April shift to club status. The school also declined to accept Carlson's resignation during a prior season, urging her to stay at Quinnipiac, Judge Dooley noted, recalling Carlson's Tuesday testimony. According to the judge, some evidence pointed toward retaliation, while other evidence undermined that claim.

After testifying as the athletes' first witness Tuesday, athletic director Greg Amodio returned to the stand Wednesday to defend the school's decision.

According to Amodio, women make up more than 60% of Quinnipiac undergraduates, while men constitute less than 40%. Male enrollment has increased in recent years, and to maintain Title IX compliance, athletic programs needed to be rebalanced to reflect the student population, Amodio testified.

He said male athletes made up 32.66% of the athletic roster in 2025-26 school year, while females comprised 67.34%. After realigning the women's rugby program as a club sport, which wouldn't count toward Title IX numbers, the projected 2026-27 team rosters would be 39.55% male, 60.45% female, according to numbers he provided.

"We needed to reduce women's opportunities and increase men's opportunities," Amodio testified.

To make that happen, Quinnipiac added a men's track and field team and focused on a women's acrobatics and tumbling team, he said. The National Collegiate Athletic Association in January elevated acrobatics and tumbling to a championship sport and established national playoffs, and Amodio said Quinnipiac wanted to focus on that program because of its heightened NCAA status.

Rugby, by comparison, has been designated an NCAA emerging sport for more than 20 years, he said. Women's championship rugby games are orchestrated by a separate organization, the National Intercollegiate Rugby Association. Quinnipiac clinched the national NIRA championship in 2015, 2016 and 2017.

Amodio said student demographic shifts and the NCAA's recognition of acrobatics and tumbling coincided with a universitywide order for each department to trim 6% of its budget due to a 200-student enrollment drop.

Lori Bullock, a lawyer for the athletes, challenged Amodio's rationale for including women's rugby athletes on the school's Title IX compliance counts. A consent decree issued after a prior Title IX lawsuit, Biediger v. Quinnipiac University , allowed the school to exclude women's rugby from Title IX reporting because of its emerging sport status and separate playoff structure. When the Biediger consent decree expired in 2024, Quinnipiac added women's rugby athletes to its Title IX reports, even as it did not count acrobatics and tumbling, which at the time was also an emerging sport, Bullock noted.

Amodio did not know specifics about the decisions, but under questioning from Quinnipiac counsel Susan D. Friedfel of Jackson Lewis PC, he said the possibility of a discrimination claim from a male student was "always a concern based on imbalance" between male and female athletes.

Two Quinnipiac rugby players testified they were ushered into an April 14 meeting before a workout session to be told their team had been demoted.

Carolyn Melody, 19, said she was stunned by the news, which came on the heels of a weekend event that left the team in high spirits.

"They were finding out on a Tuesday morning the trajectory of their life would change," she said of her teammates.

Classes ended May 2, and final exams concluded May 8, just weeks after the announcement.

Melody said she and other rugby players felt betrayed by the university and were uncomfortable using its resources to help end the semester. Many requested extensions on end-of-the-year class projects, but due to what Melody characterized as a miscommunication between a Quinnipiac office and one of her professors, she received a B+ grade in statistics, dropping her perfect 4.0 grade point average.

One teammate was so bothered by the announcement she was placed on "a type of su***de watch," Melody said.

Melody said the team didn't know what office to contact for assistance for some of its problems until her lawyers became involved.

Some players tried to line up transfers to other schools, with little success, according to Melody. She said she was lured to Quinnipiac because of its unique sports communications program and because she loved playing rugby. Plus, she said, the financial aid package worked. Other schools she identified would not provide similar scholarships or did not offer academic programs of interest, she said.

Reagan Perez, another player, said demoting women's rugby to a club sport would strip the team of resources. A men's rugby team on campus, also a club sport, is managed and coached by a student, she said.

Since rugby is a contact sport, players benefit from the expertise of sport-specific athletic trainers who know how to treat typical rugby injuries, Perez added. She worried that a club sport could increase injuries to current and new players.

Testimony stalled when Quinnipiac raised concerns about Melody's assessment of a financial aid letter she received by email on June 17. Melody said the letter appeared to hike what she presumed was her 2026-27 bill, despite promises that her more than $22,000-per-year athletic scholarship would increase along with rising tuition rates.

Amodio on Tuesday testified Quinnipiac would continue to honor scholarships offered to women's rugby athletes, even though the program had been downgraded from varsity status.

Judge Dooley ordered the parties to hash out the apparent dispute. Quinnipiac said a Tuesday letter contained Melody's correct financial aid package, but she apparently had not received it before testifying.

If she returns to Quinnipiac, Melody's total cost of attendance would top $79,000 during the 2026-27 academic year, according to the June 17 letter.

After court, Christine D. Brown, another attorney for the athletes, said burden of proof would be key during closing arguments Friday.

"Remember, this is a motion for a temporary restraining order," Brown said. "No matter what way this motion goes, the case still continues."

The plaintiffs are represented by Christine D. Brown and Ben LaCourse of Christine Brown & Partners LLC, and Lori Bullock of Bullock Law PLLC.

Quinnipiac is represented by Susan D. Friedfel, William J. Rocha and Thomas W. Moyher of Jackson Lewis PC.

The case is Perez et al. v. Quinnipiac University et al., case number 3:26-cv-00898, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut.

--Editing by Marygrace Anderson.

https://www.law360.com/articles/2493316

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