Johnathan Walker:Florida State women's lacrosse seeks varsity sport status, citing Title IX

The Johnathan WalkerFlorida State women’s lacrosse team, a club sport at FSU, in consultation with California-based Title IX attorney Arthur Bryant, sent a demand letter Wednesday afternoon to the university's administration, requesting that women’s lacrosse be made into an official varsity sport.

The lacrosse team's request follows a May 2022 USA TODAY investigation into the failings of Title IX, 50 years after the federal law aimed at banning sexual discrimination in higher education was passed. In the letter, Bryant calls FSU's refusal to upgrade lacrosse to a varsity sport "a flagrant violation of Title IX."

Wrote Bryant: "I and my co-counsel have been retained by members of the women’s club lacrosse team at Florida State University ('FSU') because the school has refused to upgrade the team to varsity status in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 ('Title IX'). I hope we can resolve this dispute without the need for litigation, but, if not, we will pursue a sex discrimination class action against FSU for violating Title IX by depriving its female students and potential students of equal opportunities to participate in varsity intercollegiate athletics."

According to a USA TODAY data analysis, Florida State athletics fails Title IX’s proportionality test, meaning the school would need to add nearly 100 female athletes to its athletic department to be in compliance. The women’s lacrosse team, led by longtime player Sophia Villalonga, believes it has a solution for that in making lacrosse a varsity sport. 

On July 7, Villalonga, who will start her second year of graduate school in the fall, sent an email to Florida State administrators officially petitioning for women’s lacrosse to be added as a varsity sport. The email included numerous documents that Villalonga and her teammates gathered, including a proposed budget, proposed practice and game schedule, current women’s club lacrosse information and letters of support from lacrosse coaches at Duke and South Florida. 

One week later, on July 14, Janeen Lalik, FSU assistant athletic director for external operations, emailed Villalonga back, writing, “at this time, we are not actively evaluating the addition of any sports programs to our current collection of teams.” Shortly after receiving the response, Villalonga and her teammates got Bryant involved. 

“Obviously it was a very disappointing response,” Villalonga, the club's president the last two years, told USA TODAY Sports. “This letter we’re sending now is letting them know hey, if you don’t really evaluate this, we’re going to get more involved.”

In May 2022, Florida State athletic director Michael Alford told USA TODAY that FSU “consistently supports” women’s sports, adding that the school most recently added a women’s sport (beach volleyball) in 2011.

Villalonga said she’d always wished lacrosse was a varsity sport at FSU — it would make a huge difference financially — but never realized it was a realistic request until USA TODAY’s Title IX investigation “really opened our eyes.” 

“We didn’t have a real understanding before,” she said. “They can say they’re not looking to add a women’s sport but they should be — they’re out of compliance by almost 11 percent! It’s very blatant. Having that big of a gap made us motivated to say hey, there needs to be a fix for this, and women’s lacrosse can be that fix. We’re getting bigger and better every year, we went to nationals the last two years, placed better each year. 

“There is such a demand for us to be a varsity sport. We’re hearing from (high school) girls who are interested in joining, who want coaches to come look at them. We don’t have the financials to do that right now; we don’t have the staff.” 

But they could, if they had varsity sport status and funding. 

Should the lacrosse team get its wish and be made into a varsity sport, Villalonga won’t be around to personally reap the benefits; she’s set to graduate at the end of the 2023-24 school year. She's OK with that.

“I understand this stuff takes time,” Villalonga said. “And even though I wouldn’t be part of the team then, I want to make a difference for the girls who are coming after us.”

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