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Join Telegram ChannelIdaho Governor Brad Little congratulated Boise State for forfeiting its match against San Jose State University on Saturday amid controversy surrounding a transgender member of the women's volleyball team.
Boise State Athletics confirmed the decision in a statement Saturday. The university did not provide an explanation for the confiscation.
Idaho Governor Brad Little recently signed an executive order directing the State Board of Education to ensure equity in women's sports is safeguarded. (Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
“Boise State volleyball will not play its scheduled match at San Jose State on Saturday, September 28,” the release said. “By Mountain West Conference politically, the Conference will record the game as a forfeit and a loss for Boise State. The Broncos next face off on October 3 against Air Force.
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The Republican governor, who recently signed an executive order directing the State Board of Education to ensure equity in women's sports, released a statement welcoming the decision.
“I applaud @BoiseState for working in the spirit of my executive order, the Women's Sports Defense Act,” read her post on X. “We must ensure the safety of all our female athletes and continue the fight for fairness in women's sport.”
Boise State is the second school to choose not to play SJSU amid controversy surrounding a member of the women's volleyball team.
Blaire Fleming, a redshirt senior at San Jose State University, plays outside and right hitter on the women's volleyball team. Fleming, a transgender athlete, played three seasons at SJSU after playing at Coastal Carolina.
BOISE STATE WOMEN'S VOLLEYBALL LOST UPCOMING GAME AGAINST SJSU AMID CONTROVERSY AROUND TRANS PLAYER
Earlier this week, one of Fleming's teammates joined several other female athletes in suing the NCAA for Title IX violations.
A volleyball net photographed during the Division III Women's Volleyball Championship held at the US Cellular Center on November 23, 2019 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. (Photos by Jack Dempsey/NCAA via Getty Images)
According to the criminal complaint, Brooke Slusser claimed she did not know Fleming was transgender although they shared rooms together on team trips. Slusser also expressed safety concerns for opponents playing against Fleming.
“Brooke estimates that Fleming's spikes were traveling at more than 80 mph, which was faster than she had ever seen a woman hit a volleyball,” Slusser's complaint states, via the Cowboy State Daily. “The girls were doing everything they could to dodge Fleming's spikes, but still couldn't completely protect themselves.”
“One thing that's important in this case is really the physical safety issues in volleyball,” Slusser's attorney, Bill Bock, told OutKick. “And that's what they face every day in training. So it's just a crazy, misguided policy that steals women's sporting dreams and gives them to men, and, at the same time, endangers the health and safety of women.”
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NCAA volleyballs pictured during the Division I Men's Volleyball Championship held at the Walter Pyramid on May 4, 2019 in Long Beach, California. (Photos by John W. McDonough/NCAA via Getty Images)
Payton McNabb, a former high school volleyball player from North Carolina, has been among the most vocal about transgender athletes in the sport.
In September 2022, McNabb was injured during a high school volleyball game when a transgender athlete on the opposing team swung the volleyball and hit her in the face, causing her to fall backwards and suffer a concussion brain injury and a neck injury.
She continues to suffer long-term physical and mental injuries caused by the incident.
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