The NCAA filed a motion to dismiss the sexual discrimination action brought against it by former soccer players at Kean University, citing the action is time barred and the complaint contained no specific discrimination allegation by the NCAA.
The motion argued that Shannon Pedersen, Emily Cristaldi, and Jaclyn Janicky failed to specifically allege that the association discriminated female athletes differently when it sent a notice informing the university of a possible rule violation by the school in 2011. Additionally, several claims stated in the original complaint were brought after a 2-year statute of limitations on state law and Title IX cases.
The motion stated that plaintiffs failed to present any comparative examples to support their allegation that they were treated any differently than other similarly situated individuals. Plaintiffs alleged that 11 student-athletes at the university, including the three plaintiffs, had their scholarships taken away after the school was notified of the possible violation. Since 9 out of 11 students were women, the complaint alleged sexual bias in the NCAA’s policies.
Plaintiffs also filed an amended complaint shortly before the motion to dismiss. The NCAA said that the amended complaint was filed after a January 16 deadline and continued to have the flaws the association pointed out in the original complaint.
The suit seeks a class certification and has proposed to include all female student athletes who were removed from participating in sports in 2011 or had their scholarships taken away due to sexually biased NCAA policies and procedures.