San Jose State transgender controversy: Boise State uncertain if it will boycott Spartans in Mountain West volleyball semis

Twice during the regular season, the Boise State women’s volleyball team took a moral stand by forfeiting matches against San Jose State rather than competing against a player believed to be transgender.

Now the Broncos must decide whether to do it a third time with a lot more at stake.

Boise State opened conference tournament play on Wednesday night in Las Vegas with a four-set upset victory over Utah State in the Mountain West quarterfinals. Awaiting the sixth-seeded Broncos in Friday’s semifinals is San Jose State, which secured the six-team tournament’s No. 2 seed and received a bye in the quarterfinals.

If Boise State (18-10, 10-8) again chooses to boycott its upcoming match against San Jose State, a forfeit loss would almost certainly doom the Broncos’ hopes of making the NCAA tournament or any other postseason competition. If Boise State plays on, the Broncos would extend their season and preserve the possibility of securing the Mountain West’s automatic NCAA tournament bid but risk undermining the message behind their previous protests.

It isn't yet clear which route the Broncos will take. Boise State media relations director Doug Link told reporters in Las Vegas that the Broncos had not yet decided if they would play on Friday. He would not address if it would come down to a team vote or external factors.

Neither Link nor Boise State associate athletic director Chris Kutz immediately returned post-match messages from Yahoo Sports seeking comment. When reached Tuesday morning, Kutz said, “We do not have a comment on any potential matchups at this time.”

In late September, Boise State became the first Mountain West school to announce that it would not play San Jose State and that it would instead accept a forfeit. The decision set off a cascade of forfeits throughout the conference as Wyoming, Utah State and Nevada each followed suit. In each instance, the schools chose not to explain why they wouldn't play San Jose State. In each instance, the announcements were followed by a social media post from a Republican state senator or governor praising the decision to protect women's sports.

Yahoo Sports is not naming the San Jose State volleyball player in question because neither she nor her university have publicly commented on her gender identity. San Jose State has said that all its women’s volleyball players are eligible to participate under NCAA and Mountain West Conference rules.

The NCAA allows transgender women’s athletes to compete if they meet the eligibility criteria set by their sport’s individual governing body. For women’s volleyball, that means transgender women’s athletes must submit documentation of their testosterone levels for at least the previous year to prove they do not exceed the “normal female reference range for their age group.”

Two weeks ago, Boise State sisters Kiersten and Katelyn Van Kirk and a handful of other current Mountain West players filed a lawsuit against the league seeking emergency injunctive relief. The lawsuit sought to ban the San Jose State player believed to be transgender, to strip the Spartans of six league wins obtained by forfeit and prevent the team from participating in the Mountain West tournament.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Kato Crews rejected the players' request, arguing that the late timing placed "a heavy lift" on the Mountain West and that the "plaintiffs "could have sought injunctive relief much earlier." That ruling was upheld Tuesday by an appeals court.

“We are gratified that the Court rejected an eleventh-hour attempt to change those rules,” San Jose State said Monday in a statement. “Our team looks forward to competing in the Mountain West volleyball tournament this week.”

Before it found itself at the center of the national firestorm surrounding transgender athletes, San Jose State women’s volleyball could not have been more obscure. This is a program that last won a conference title in 1985, last made the NCAA tournament in 2001 and that seldom draws more than a few hundred fans to home matches.

The player believed to be transgender had already played at San Jose State prior to this year for two seasons without incident. She first made an all-conference team on Tuesday when she earned honorable mention all-Mountain West honors.

Her presence first drew attention last April when Reduxx published a story alleging that a San Jose State women’s volleyball player was transgender and had withheld her biological sex from teammates and opponents. The self-described “pro-woman, pro-child” outlet said it had begun reporting the story after receiving a tip from the mother of an opposing player.

In September, San Jose State setter Brooke Slusser joined a federal lawsuit challenging NCAA policy allowing transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports. Slusser roomed with the player in question after transferring from Alabama last fall but learned about her teammate’s alleged gender identity only after Reduxx outed her.

In the legal filing, Slusser insisted that her allegedly transgender teammate strikes the ball with such power that it provides San Jose State “an unfair advantage” and poses a safety risk to other players during practices and games. Slusser claimed the player’s spikes in practice were traveling “faster than she had ever seen a woman hit a volleyball.”

Those comments from Slusser tossed a lighted match on a pile of kindling. Local and national media outlets began covering the story, activist groups attacked San Jose State and right-wing politicians exerted their influence.

San Jose State navigated the chaos, finishing second in the conference with six of the victories via forfeit. Slusser served as San Jose State’s primary setter all season. The allegedly transgender player started at outside hitter and led the Spartans in kills during Mountain West play.

“No one could have imagined what we would go through together as a program over the past few months,” San Jose State coach Todd Kress told reporters last week. “It has been a rollercoaster ride with some big ups and downs.

“Through it all, these student-athletes have shown the grit and determination to stay together as a team, to stand together on the court and to play the game we all love while enduring an experience unique in the history of college sports," he continued. "Some days I don’t know how we have done it. The pain, the conflict and the relentless negativity directed at this team in the media and the bleachers could have broken us but it didn’t. We kept playing and there may be no bigger achievement than that.”

Kress said his team finished the season playing some of its best volleyball. Now San Jose State can only wait to see when it will play again.

It might be in Friday’s Mountain West semifinals against Boise State. Or it might be a day later against Colorado State or San Diego State in the Mountain West final.