Female Athletes File Title IX Sex Discrimination Class Action Against UC Davis

In April the Globe reported that the Division 1 UC Davis Women’s Equestrian team, despite record-breaking success, was being cut in July. This was a result of what parents and supporters say is the Athletic Department’s financial malfeasance. And this was after they won an historic 3rd conference title.

According to equestrian team parents and supporters the Globe spoke with, the Athletic Director at UC Davis announced the elimination of the D1 equestrian team on January 9, 2026, despite the program’s close alignment with the university’s agricultural and veterinary missions, two-time conference champion wins at the time, UC Davis’ “Women’s Team of the Year” award, and team members’ consistently high GPAs.

At the end of April, parents and supporters of the UC Davis NCAA Division 1 Women’s Equestrian team released the initial findings of an independent audit conducted by OSKR, a leading economic and accounting firm, the Globe reported. The audit revealed what advocates have asserted since January: UC Davis leadership used fundamentally flawed data, manipulated donation reporting, and ignored standard accounting principles to create a false narrative of “budget challenges.”

“At its core, the standard ‘NCAA’ accounting system requires disconnection between the actual cash flow benefits/costs of activities and the required accounting treatment. The result of this disconnect is that many expense line items float untethered from the related revenues they generate,” the audit opens with.

The OSKR audit report provides definitive confirmation that the university’s justification for cutting the championship team – a supposed $1 million-plus in savings – is a mathematical fiction.

Now, 19 former members of UC Davis’s recently-eliminated female equestrian team filed a sex discrimination class action against the school Tuesday, for discriminating against all its female student-athletes by depriving them of equal athletic financial aid in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Attorney Arthur Bryant said in a press release Tuesday.

The lawsuit opens with:

This is a sex discrimination class action against the Regents of the University of California, on behalf of its Davis campus (“UC Davis” or “Defendant”) for violating Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (“Title IX”) by depriving UC Davis’s female varsity student- athletes of equal athletic financial aid.

UC Davis has not paid its female varsity student-athletes equal athletic financial aid since at least the 2017-2018 academic year.

Attorney Bryant continues:

“The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, and seeks to make UC Davis pay close to $1,400,000 to its female athletes for depriving them of athletic financial aid and paying it to the male athletes instead in 2023-24 and 2024-25, the last two years for which information is publicly available.”

The lawsuit details:

According to Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (“EADA”) data, UC Davis failed to pay its female varsity student-athletes between $141,474 and $577,560 annually in athletic financial aid for academic years 2017-18 through 2024-25. Due to UC Davis overpaying athletic financial aid to male student-athletes instead, the estimated monetary damages are even higher, ranging between $294,306 and $1,168,941 annually for the academic years 2017-18 through 2024-25.

Attorney Bryant explains:

“It also seeks damages for the athletic financial aid the women were and are being illegally deprived of in other years, including last year and this year (the amounts are not yet public), and a court order requiring UC Davis to comply with Title IX and provide equal athletic financial aid in the future.

Title IX, a federal civil rights law, prohibits sex discrimination in all educational institutions that receive federal funds. It requires schools to grant athletic financial aid to male and female athletes in dollar amounts proportional to their athletic participation rates.

UC Davis recently eliminated its women’s equestrian team and cited an “independent external assessment” by a consultant to support its decision. The assessment showed, however, that UC Davis was not providing women with their legally required proportional share of athletic financial aid. The class action is based on that data and on reports UC Davis provided and verified as accurate to the U.S. Department of Education under the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act.”

The lawsuit explains:

If UC Davis complied with Title IX and granted athletic financial aid to its female and male varsity student-athletes proportional to their athletic participation rates, its female student-athletes, including each of the Plaintiffs, would have had an opportunity to receive their fair share of equal athletic financial aid.

Instead, each of the Plaintiffs was denied the opportunity to receive equal financial aid, despite Title IX’s express protection of that opportunity.

And:

If UC Davis complied with Title IX and granted athletic financial aid to its female varsity student-athletes proportional to the athletic financial aid it granted to UC Davis’s male varsity student-athletes, each of the Plaintiffs would have received at least $1 more in athletic financial aid than she did.

Attorney Bryant continues:

“We were devastated when UC Davis eliminated the equestrian team, which was successful and thriving,” said Plaintiff and UC Davis senior Anna Donovan, an award-winning former equestrian team member. “Then, we were stunned even more when the school tried to defend its decision by releasing a consultant’s report showing it was depriving women athletes annually of hundreds of thousands of dollars in equal athletic financial aid.”

Former equestrian team members Avery Adamson, Sophia Blake, Addyson Brown, Mya Clader, Sabine Close, Katya Dundas, Chloe Fares, Margaret Franke, Carmen Gonzalez, Liliana Grosz, Laura Holliday, Hannah Janicki, Nicole Jimenez, Nicole Shroyer, Cavan Smith, Zadie Stack, Lola Sullivan, and Mylea Trimble are also Plaintiffs in the case.

The lawsuit says:

Each of the Plaintiffs was treated like a second-class citizen at UC Davis because of her sex, which is inherently degrading, stigmatizing, and affected each of the Plaintiff’s experiences.

“When UC Davis cut the equestrian team, it showed what it cared about was the money. So, this case focuses on the money,” said Arthur Bryant of Arthur Bryant Law, P.C., in Oakland, CA, lead counsel for the women. “UC Davis’s own numbers show it has been cheating its women athletes out of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually in equal athletic financial aid. That is clear and indisputable sex discrimination.”

Eric Grover of Keller Grover LLP in San Francisco, CA, co-counsel for the women, added, “This case isn’t complicated. It’s math. Based on the numbers UC Davis provided to the federal government, the math shows UC Davis is discriminating against its female athletes in violation of Title IX. We intend to hold it accountable.” Robert Spencer of Keller Grover LLP is also co-counsel for the women athletes.

Here is the lawsuit – and it is really interesting: