YPSILANTI, Mich. (AP) - The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has granted Eastern Michigan University’s request to stay a judge’s order that it reinstate its women’s softball program.
The decision Thursday means the university can halt the process ordered by Detroit federal Judge George Caram Steeh last month to hire a softball coach by April 1 and begin reinstating the program until a Title IX lawsuit brought by softball players is decided.
The decision said in part that “Title IX requires equality between men’s and women’s teams, not that certain teams (say women’s softball) be reinstated rather than other sports teams be created, supported, or expanded.”
EMU has said it had offered 21 sports, the most in the Mid-American Conference, when it cut women’s tennis and softball last year. It later agreed to reinstate tennis.
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