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As San Jose State University nears a critical deadline in its Title IX dispute against President Donald Trump’s administration, another woman affected by the school’s 2024 volleyball scandal has come forward.
Former University of Wyoming volleyball star Macey Boggs said her team was “torn apart” over a decision on whether to forfeit two games to SJSU in 2024. The Spartans were embroiled in a national controversy at the time due to the presence of a biologically male transgender athlete on the roster.
Boggs said in a recent interview that the players found out about the trans player they competed against two years prior in the spring of 2024. As fall rolled around, the locker room became a hotbed of tension and nerves because of the two scheduled games between Wyoming and SJSU, and disagreements over whether or not to lose weight.
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Former University of Wyoming volleyball star Macey Boggs (Courtesy of Macey Boggs)
“You could tell things were getting a little hostile,” Boggs told Pakinomist Digital.
“In between the whispers between each other’s backs, and then we were no longer one team, one unit, it was like these two separate islands.”
Friendships were permanently destroyed for Boggs and the rest of the Cowgirls, she said.
“Yes,” Boggs said when asked if the situation “permanently destroyed friendships.”
“There were some of the girls that I really enjoyed and we got along, and then this situation came up, some conflict arose, and ultimately we went 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 those relationships.”
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 star Kaylie Ray previously told Pakinomist Digital that the decision was left to a player vote, and the majority of players voted to forfeit.
Wyoming also left the decision up to a player vote, according to Boggs. But that vote had a problem for her.
“It was said it was up to the players. So we took an anonymous vote, we ended up playing because most of the girls on my team wanted to play,” Boggs said. But she and others weren’t supposed to play anyway, regardless of the vote.
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“There were a few of us who were like, ‘We’re not playing.’ So we decided we weren’t going to play. . . . There was a lot of conflict within the team . . . and that’s not something you should have to deal with on your team. . . . It just seems so stupid and something that tore the team apart.”
The skeleton came with several difficult conversations for Boggs.
But most of the conversations were not necessarily ideological, about whether men should be able to play in women’s sports. Boggs said the conversations were mostly about the pain of taking two losses on their record when they all worked so hard to make the playoffs.
It was especially hard for the seniors.
“One of the hardest conversations there were two, one of them was a co-senior and she said ‘this is my co-senior year, I don’t want it to be ruined by this. And I totally echoed that, because it was also my senior year and it was ruined by that,'” Boggs said.
“One girl was doing really well statistically in the Mountain West and NCAA and she mentioned, ‘how is this going to affect my stats?’ And it didn’t sit well with me because I was like, “okay, that’s kind of selfish.”
“I understood where she was coming from … but at the end of the day it’s a bigger issue.”
Boggs and the players determined not to play the game prepared to tell the coaches of their intention.
But just then, prior to 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 claims Wyoming Athletic Director Tom Burman told them they had been instructed by the Wyoming state government to forfeit the game.
“By the time it was time to tell the coaches, we had another meeting and ultimately the board decided, ‘hey, you’re not going to play,’ which was great,” Boggs said.
“It was told to us by our AD Tom Burman, so he was the one who said, ‘that’s the decision that’s been made, it’s been taken out of your guys’ hands. And I’m so grateful for that.’
Pakinomist Digital has reached out to University of Wyoming Athletics and Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon’s office for a response.
Public records show the university faced “outside pressure” to lose the game, according to WyoFile.
Gordon praised the forfeiture in a statement at the time.
“I fully support Wyoming Athletics’ decision to forgo playing its volleyball game against San Jose State. It is important that we stand for integrity and fairness in women’s athletics,” Gordon said.
The dispute was resolved. But the consequences remain.
Wyoming went on to finish the season 17-13, losing six of their last nine games. They finished two games out of last place in the conference tournament, and would have made the tournament had they won their two games against SJSU. It was the last chance for Boggs and other seniors to make the tournament in their Wyoming careers.
In the dressing room, the disagreements over the first vote left a rift. Boggs and the women at her side dug their heels in deeper.
In November of that year, Boggs and teammates Sierra Grizzle and Jordan Sandy joined former SJSU volleyball star Brooke Slusser’s lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference. Slusser initially brought the scandal into the national spotlight that September when she joined Riley Gaines’ lawsuit against the NCAA, with Slusser citing her experience playing with and hanging out with trans teammate Blaire Fleming without ever being officially told of Fleming’s birth sex.
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) system.
Boggs said the decision to take things that far earned the respect of teammates who initially voted to play the game.
When they joined, Boggs said she told her other teammates, “‘Hey, can we talk to you guys. We’ve decided to join this lawsuit and that’s why.’
“And after that, they like it completely understood… I think standing up for something can be extremely scary and something you have to be very brave and courageous in.”
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Slusser’s lawsuit against Mountain West was partially dismissed by federal judge Kato Crews earlier in March, when all charges against Mountain West were dismissed.
However, Title IX demands and representatives of SJSU and CSU were not denied. Crews is reserving a ruling on those allegations until after the ruling in the ongoing BPJ v. West Virginia Supreme Court case regarding trans athletes in women’s sports, and the Title IX implications.
At the same time, SJSU and CSU are waging a legal battle against the Trump administration’s efforts to get SJSU to resolve its alleged Title IX violations for how it handled Fleming.
After the U.S. Department of Education announced an investigation that found SJSU violated Title IX and offered a series of compliance points to fix it, SJSU and CSU sued the federal government to challenge the findings.
“I laughed,” Boggs said when she heard the news of SJSU’s lawsuit. “It seems like something that’s kind of silly. I really think we shouldn’t even have lawsuits centered around men in women’s sports.”
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon responded to the lawsuits on March 11, giving the institutions 10 days to reach an agreement or risk cuts in federal funding and a referral to the U.S. Department of Justice.
With the 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 have gone viral on social media in recent weeks after speaking out, drawing criticism and even online insults from people with pro-transgender views.
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Boggs said she has faced online attacks from the other side ever since her decision to defect and join the 2024 trial, and she is prepared to face more if necessary.
“I’ll carry the weight all day, I’ll take any hate that’s going to come because I really believe in this. If you’re going to say these crazy things, I’d rather say them to me than the girls that I’m fighting.”
