University cuts men’s teams to hit sex quota; athletes fight back

Riverside, California; March 26, 2026: Three wrestlers from California Baptist University filed a lawsuit today challenging their university’s decision to eliminate the men’s wrestling team — a move that forces the athletes to give up their sport or transfer schools. Paul Kelly, Cooper Shore, and Jesse Vasquez allege the cuts violate Title IX by using proportionality as a pretext to discriminate against male athletes.

“Title IX was built to open doors for students, not close them,” said Caleb Trotter, Senior Attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation. “Cutting men’s programs to hit a quota isn’t equality; it’s discrimination. Every student deserves the freedom to compete without being told there are already enough people of their sex playing.”

Vasquez, who holds dual citizenship with Mexico, came to CBU as a graduate student to work as a graduate assistant coach while training toward his goal of competing for Mexico at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. Wrestlers Kelly and Shore chose CBU for its Christian mission and values. The university announced it would eliminate the men’s wrestling, golf, and swimming and diving teams at the end of the 2025–26 academic year, while leaving all women’s programs intact. By cutting men’s teams, the school can achieve near-perfect proportionality—matching roster spots to enrollment—an outcome that can only be the product of intentional sex balancing, not chance.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, challenges the university’s misapplication of a non-binding Department of Education interpretation of Title IX, which PLF filed a separate petition to repeal. Title IX itself says schools cannot give preferential or disparate treatment based on sex.

Pacific Legal Foundation represents the athletes free of charge. The case is Kelly, et al. v. California Baptist University.