By james art Emails obtained by USA TODAY reveal the timeline and implications of Boise State’s decision to drop San Jose State.
Three days after Boise State decided to forfeit a women’s volleyball game due to the reported presence of a transgender player on the opposing team, San Jose State athletic director Jeff Konya emailed colleague Jeremiah Dickey demanding that Boise State repay at least $1,250 of the expected revenue lost due to the cancellation.
After stressing that San Jose State has followed all NCAA and Mountain West Conference rules regarding transgender athletes, Konya wrote: “(F)rom a practical standpoint, your institution’s arbitrary decision not to field an otherwise compliant team on the terms, has resulted in financial harm to SJSU and our institution’s brand.”
The $1,250 figure, Konya wrote, is largely about what San Jose State would expect to bring in that day for concessions and parking.
“I would at least ask to be healed,” he wrote.
Spokespeople for both San Jose State and Boise State told USA TODAY Sports that Dickey did not respond to the email and Boise State has not made any restitution.
The email to Dickey was one of dozens obtained through public records requests that shed light on the timeline and ramifications of Boise State’s decision, escalating an issue that has become contentious in the Mountain West as three other teams in the conference — Wyoming, Utah State and Nevada followed suit by refusing to play San Jose State.
The shutouts helped propel the Spartans to a 7-3 conference record, putting them in a strong position to advance to the six-team conference tournament and possibly the NCAA tournament if they win the league’s automatic bid.
The player, whom USA TODAY Sports will not name because neither she nor the school has commented or confirmed her gender identity, remains on the San Jose State team. The player played at San Jose State for two incident-free seasons and another school before that. And the argument is about to peak once again as the postseason approaches in late November.
A Mountain West official said the league’s volleyball handbook has a Nov. 22 deadline for schools to commit to play in the conference tournament. All four teams that dropped the Spartans remain in contention for the Mountain West tournament.
Much of the furore surrounding San Jose State stems from a Title IX lawsuit filed in Georgia challenging NCAA rules that allow transgender participation on women’s teams despite strict testosterone testing protocols put in place by organizations such as the USA Volleyball and accepted by the NCAA.
San Jose State co-captain Brooke Slusser joined the lawsuit, claiming she learned her teammate and roommate was transgender after an April article published by the website Reduxx outed the player in question.
Most Wyoming players wanted to play at San Jose State but were rejected
Since then, activist groups have pressured Mountain West schools and players from those teams not to play against San Jose State as a statement against trans participation in sports, an issue that has been particularly raised during the election season by Republican politicians and Donald Trump’s presidential campaign .
In the case of Wyoming, USA TODAY Sports found that most of the players on the team wanted to play but were turned away due to political pressure and threats from the state legislature to cut funding to the university.
Talks with those same activist groups were part of Boise’s decision-making schedule before it announced the seizure, documents show.
It appears, according to those documents, that the notion of losing became a serious consideration about a week before Boise State’s two-game road trip that would have taken the team from Fresno State on Thursday, Sept. 26, to San Jose State the following Saturday.
On Saturday, Sept. 21, Dickey wrote to senior women’s administrator Christina Van Tol and members of the volleyball team, suggesting a Zoom meeting with the team on Monday or Tuesday before the team left for the trip on Wednesday.
The head coach, Sean Garrus, responded and noted the priority of “making sure all players get the same message,” while informing them of the NCAA rule and the likelihood of being contacted about the topic.
Activist groups met with Boise State leaders two days before the cancellation
Van Tol suggested school officials explain the rules and then allow players to take an anonymous survey to offer feedback on whether they have concerns about San Jose State’s game.
“I think what’s important to understand is that student-athletes may have feelings about the topic they want to share, but maybe not in a group setting,” she wrote. “I think the goal is to let them share if they have any hesitation or issues playing against the SJSU player.”
It is not clear what happened at the meeting.
But on Sept. 25 — two days before the cancellation was announced — university officials held a conference call with Doreen Denney of Concerned Women for America, Marcia Smith of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports and Idaho State Rep. Barbara Ehardt, the former head basketball coach at Cal State Fullerton, which sponsored the first bill passed by a state legislature banning transgender athletes from women’s sports.
“The purpose of the meeting was educational – to convey the same information and concerns that the Independent Council on Women’s Sports and the state chapters of Concerned Women for America have expressed in letters to universities in the Mountain West to raise awareness of legal credentials in a related lawsuit against the NCAA and to discuss the responsibilities of universities to their athletes and the appropriateness of Title IX provisions and obligations,” Denny wrote in an email to USA TODAY Sports.
On the Boise State side of the call were the university’s general counsel Matt Wild, senior government relations adviser Jennifer White and Dickey, the director of athletics.
USA TODAY Sports asked Boise State if Dickey had spoken with LGBTQ advocacy groups, on or off campus, who might have presented a different or more favorable view of trans participation in sports. A Boise State spokesman said it was not, but declined to explain why.
That kind of dichotomy — university officials highly responsive to those who support the loss while showing less interest in those with a different view — was evident throughout the tranche of emails provided by Boise State to USA TODAY Sports. Garrus personally responded to more than a dozen emails praising the school for its decision and thanking people for their support.
In one case, a Minnesota man who said he had no connection to the university wrote to Boise State offering to make a tax-deductible donation because “I don’t think a women’s team should give up on a team that has a man on it.” him.
Six minutes after receiving that email on Sept. 30, senior associate athletics director Cody Gugler responded, writing, “We appreciate your willingness to philanthropically support our volleyball program,” and followed up with another email later that evening thanking him again for the support. Justin Rogers, assistant director of athletics, stepped in within the hour, sending a link for sport-specific donations with instructions on how to ensure the donation goes to women’s volleyball.
A Boise State spokesperson told USA TODAY Sports that it was unclear how many donations were made or lost due to the forfeiture decision.
However, documents provided by Boise State show conversations between the school’s internal communications and public relations apparatus monitored the response, with Dickey noting at one point that most of the correspondence he received was positive.
“I respond to those who come my way. So far I have only received 3 negative emails,” he wrote on the evening of September 28 to three of his employees. “More positive. We will find a way forward!’
He reiterated that message in a conversation with school president Marlene Tromp the same day after an email circulated among Boise State officials from a student who wrote: “As a queer student at Boise State, I have never felt fully accepted or safe on campus.. .we’ve seen efforts by the university to support and celebrate diverse students, but this decision has led to skepticism about our institution’s stance on diversity. I believe Boise State has a burning obligation to commit to opportunities that support marginalized and minority students, even at other institutions!”
After Dickey wrote to Tromp that “We haven’t gotten a lot of negative emails … the majority positive,” she responded the next afternoon that “I’ve gotten some really heartbroken messages from students.”
As more of these messages came in, however, Tromp wrote to Associate Vice President for Communications Lauren Griswold and Dean of Students Chris Wutrich that he suspected they were part of a click-to-send email campaign.
“Can your team find it?” she asked Griswold.
Tromp, who does not appear to have been directly involved in the forfeiture decision, did not respond to emails. Instead, it was Wuthrich’s job to respond.
His email on the form said Boise State “welcomes and unequivocally supports our transgender students” and that “recent media reports have highlighted a complex issue in college athletics.” It also provided phone numbers and internet links for LGBTQIA+ students if they needed support or counseling services.