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As San Jose State University approaches a critical deadline in its Title IX lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration, one woman affected by the school’s 2024 volleyball scandal has come forward.
Former University of Wyoming volleyball player Macey Boggs said her team was “divided” over the decision whether or not to get two games from SJSU in 2024. The Spartans were embroiled in national controversy at the time due to the presence of a biologically transgender male athlete on the roster.
Boggs said in a recent interview that the players found out about the trans player, who they competed against two years ago, in the spring of 2024. When the fall rolled around, the locker room became chaotic because of the two scheduled games between Wyoming and SJSU, and disagreements about whether or not they had lost.
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Former University of Wyoming volleyball player Macey Boggs (Courtesy of Macey Boggs)
“You can see things are a little more hostile,” Boggs told Fox News Digital.
“Between whispering behind each other’s backs, we were no longer one group, one unit, it was like these two separate islands.”
The friendship was forever lost for Boggs and the other Cowgirls, she said.
“Yes,” Boggs said when asked if the situation “ruined the friendship forever.”
“There were girls that I really liked and we got along well and then this situation came up, there was a conflict, and we ended up going our separate ways because of that … as soon as we played in our last game, we all went our separate ways … it was hard to maintain that relationship.”
How did it get to that point?
The first Mountain West team to lose to SJSU that year was Utah State, becoming the first of five conference teams to do so.
Former Utah State player Kaylie Ray previously told Fox News Digital that the decision was left up to a player vote, and the majority of players voted to lose.
Wyoming also left the decision on a player vote, per Boggs. But that vote had a troubling effect on him.
“It was said that it was up to the players. So we took an anonymous vote, and it ended up saying that we would play because most of the girls on my team wanted to play,” said Boggs. But he and the others weren’t going to play anyway, regardless of the vote.
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“There were a few of us who said, ‘We’re not going to play.’ So we decided not to play… There was a lot of conflict in the team… and it’s not something you should face in your team… It seems like a stupid thing and something that created within the team.”
The breakup came with a few tough conversations for Boggs.
But most of the discussion was not intellectual, about whether men should be able to play in women’s sports. Boggs said the talks were about the pain of two losses on their record, while they were all working hard to make the playoffs.
It was very difficult for adults.
“One of the most difficult conversations, there were two of them, one of them was an old colleague and he said ‘this is my senior year, I don’t want it to be ruined by this. And I fully accepted that because it was also my senior year and it was ruined by that,'” said Boggs.
“One girl was doing really well in math in the Mountain West and the NCAA and she said, ‘How is this going to affect my math?’ And that didn’t sit well with me because I was like, ‘okay that’s selfish.’
“I understood where you were coming from… but in the end it’s a big problem.”
Boggs and the players who were determined not to play the game were preparing to tell the coaches their intention.
But then, before the first game between Wyoming and SJSU on Oct. 5 of that year, the players were called to another meeting, Boggs said.
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Boggs says Wyoming Athletic Director Tom Burman told them they were ordered by the Wyoming state government to drop the game.
“When we told the coaches, we had another meeting, and finally the government decided ‘hey, you’re not going to play,’ which was very surprising,” Boggs said.
“We were told by our AD Tom Burman, so he was the one who said, ‘this is the decision that’s been made, it’s been taken out of your guys’ hands. And I’m very grateful for that.’
Fox News Digital reached out to the University of Wyoming Athletics office and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon’s office for comment.
Dispute resolved. But the results are still there.
Wyoming went on to finish the season 17-13, losing six of its last nine games. They finished two games out of last place in the conference tournament, and would have made the tournament if they had won their two games against SJSU. It was the last chance for Boggs and the other seniors to make the tournament in their Wyoming careers.
Inside the locker room, disagreements over the first vote left cracks. Boggs and the women on his side dug their heels in.
In November of that year, Boggs and teammates Sierra Grizzle and Jordan Sandy joined former SJSU volleyball player Brooke Slusser in a lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference. Slusser first brought the scandal to national attention in September, when she joined Riley Gaines’ lawsuit against the NCAA, Slusser revealed her experience playing and living with teammate Blaire Fleming without being officially informed of Fleming’s birth gender.
Boggs, Grizzle and Sandy joined Slusser and seven other conference players in suing the Mountain West and representing SJSU and the California State University (CSU) program.
Boggs said the decision to take things earned the respect of his teammates who initially voted to play the game.
When they joined, Boggs said he told some of his colleagues, “‘Hey, we can talk to you guys. We decided to join this case and that’s why.’
“And after that, they like to be completely understood … I think that standing up for something can be very scary, and something that you need to be brave and courageous about.”
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Slusser and Mountain West’s case was partially dismissed by federal judge Kato Crews in early March, and all charges against Mountain West were dismissed.
However, the Title IX claims by SJSU and CSU representatives were not dismissed. The staff has withheld a decision on those charges until after the decision in the ongoing BPJ v West Virginia Supreme Court case regarding transgender athletes in women’s sports, and the implications of Title IX.
At the same time, SJSU and CSU are fighting a legal battle against the Trump administration’s efforts to get SJSU to resolve alleged Title IX violations over its handling of Fleming.
After the US Department of Education announced an investigation that found SJSU had violated Title IX, and issued a series of compliance points to be resolved, SJSU and CSU sued the federal government to challenge the findings.
“I laughed,” Boggs said when he heard the news of the SJSU case. “That seems a bit silly. I really believe that we should never have male-centric charges in women’s sports.”
US Education Secretary Linda McMahon responded to the lawsuits on March 11, giving institutions a 10-day deadline to reach an agreement or risk federal funding cuts and referral to the US Department of Justice.
With that deadline coming within a week, Boggs is the latest woman affected by the scandal to speak out about the experience, joining Slusser and Ray.
Both Slusser and Ray took to social media in recent weeks after speaking out, drawing criticism and even online abuse from people with pro-transgender views.
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Boggs said he has faced cyber attacks from the other side since he decided to withdraw and join the lawsuit in 2024, and he is willing to face more, if necessary.
“I’m going to take it all day long, I’m going to take any hate that has to come, because I really believe in this. If you’re going to say these crazy things, you’d better say them to me than to those girls I’m fighting.”
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