Diverse Docket: Basketball Player Loses Scholarship, Court Case - Higher Education: A former basketball player who lost her athletic scholarship for poor performance on the court has also lost a court case accusing Central Michigan University of discrimination because she is White and heterosexual.
The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously refused to reinstate Brooke Heike’s equal protection suit against CMU, her coach, the athletic director and a financial aid official.
The three-judge panel found insufficient evidence to support the allegations and said the university provided adequate due process by granting Heike a hearing on its decision not to renew her scholarship.
The court recognized great deference to the discretion of coaches, saying, “A coach’s decisions about who plays, how much playing time each player gets and whether a player remains part of the team at the end of a seasons are, by their nature, based on a vast array of subjective, individualized assessments.”