San Jose State Asked Utah State & Boise State For Money Over Forfeited Volleyball Matches
Five schools have canceled volleyball matches against San Jose State this season because of the presence of transgender player Blaire Fleming.
The first was Southern Utah, which declined to compete in a non-conference match at the Santa Clara Tournament.
Since then, four Mountain West schools have forfeited their matches against SJSU: Boise State, Wyoming, Utah State and Nevada.
OutKick has exclusively learned that San Jose State asked two of those schools to pay them damages for losing out on those matches.
San Jose State University asked both Utah State and Boise State to pay SJSU money for "lost revenue" due to the two schools forfeiting their volleyball matches over the presence of transgender player Blaire Fleming.
(San Jose State Athletics)
We submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to Boise State and obtained emails related to the school forfeiting its match against San Jose State.
One email, sent by San Jose State athletics director Jeff Konya to Boise State athletics director Jeremiah Dickey, asked the school to pay San Jose State for that forfeit.
"Your institution's arbitrary decision not to play an otherwise eligible NCAA team has resulted in harm to SJSU financially and our institution's brand," Konya wrote.
"We estimate we missed out on approximately $1,250 in game day revenue by not playing the [match] on Saturday when you add all of the various revenue sources (i.e., concessions, parking among others). I would ask to be made whole at the very least."
OutKick reached out to San Jose State about this email, and it confirmed that it asked both Boise State and Utah State for $1,250 for the forfeited matches.
SJSU also told us that neither Boise State nor Utah State paid the requested amount.
OutKick reached out to both schools for comment on their decisions not to pay San Jose State and is currently awaiting replies.
San Jose State University asked both Utah State and Boise State to pay SJSU money for "lost revenue" due to the two schools forfeiting their volleyball matches over the presence of transgender player Blaire Fleming.
(Utah State University Athletics & San Jose State University Athletics)
San Jose State did not ask for money from Southern Utah, Wyoming, or Nevada because none of those were scheduled home matches for the Spartans.
While the Nevada game was eventually moved to San Jose State's campus, that was a procedural move that ultimately saved San Jose State from having to travel to Reno to accept a forfeit.
Thus, San Jose State elected not to ask Nevada for money.
As it stands, San Jose State believes that schools forfeiting matches due to the presence of a transgender athlete on their volleyball team "resulted in harm to SJSU financially and [their] institution's brand."
They also interestingly referred to the forfeit decisions as "arbitrary."
The definition of arbitrary is as follows: "based on random choice or personal whim, rather than any reason or system."
It's pretty clear that the schools are not forfeiting as a result of "random choice" or "personal whim."
They forfeited to protect women's sports from biological males and to keep their female athletes safe.
OutKick asked SJSU to explain its use of the word "arbitrary" but it did not respond.