By Dave Solomon, Register Sports Columnist
dsolomon@newhavenregister.com

Smart legal minds were pretty unanimous from the start that Quinnipiac was going to lose its backdoor play to eliminate women’s volleyball by wrapping a pretty bow around a funky dance team called competitive cheer.

It was witchcraft from the start, and everyone seemed to acknowledge that fact, except the Kool-Aid drinkers of Team John Lahey.

In fact, the only thing startling in Judge Stefan R. Underhill’s 95-page “memorandum of decision” handed down Wednesday, is that there are no winners in this lawsuit, only losers.

Let the ACLU, counsel for the plaintiffs, clamor about victory, because surely Quinnipiac was found guilty of Title IX violations and cooking the books in its representation of athletes to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights.

The truth is, we learned that much 14 months ago in the preliminary injunction trial in Federal Court in Bridgeport.

Well, there’s not that much new this time, other than some self-correction by Quinnipiac over the past school year, in terms of reporting more realistic and accurate roster sizes.

But this is a pyrrhic victory for the women’s volleyball program in every sense of the term because in the memorable final words of Judge Underhill, “any compliance plan that Quinnipiac submits (over the next 90 days) must commit to sponsoring the women’s volleyball team during the 2010-11 season. Quinnipiac is not obligated to continue sponsoring the team beyond that point, however, so long as any decision to eliminate women’s volleyball is accompanied by other changes that will bring the university into compliance with Title IX.”

And there you have the part that snatches any victory from coach Robin Sparks and her volleyball program. It comes with the certainty that not only will women’s volleyball never prosper at Quinnipiac, but it will wither and die.

Why would any talented high school volleyball player attend Quinnipiac, knowing that the program is potentially one year from being discarded again? As soon as Quinnipiac gets on the right side of the Title IX equation, the 14 women of volleyball will be out.

The biggest surprise in the entire head-splitting 95 pages of legalese is that Judge Underhill provided no permanence for the women’s volleyball program. Perhaps the letter of the law wouldn’t have permitted him to do so. But Quinnipiac president John Lahey doesn’t need to appeal the decision because in reality, Quinnipiac volleyball received a prolonged death sentence Wednesday. Even by winning its lawsuit. Continued...

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It may not be in a year or two, but when all the players are new … and the next coach is hand-picked … and the losses have become overwhelming … Quinnipiac will win the war of attrition.

There will be no period of rapprochement from Quinnipiac, and if you held so much as a glimmer of hope that Quinnipiac would take this loss gentlemanly, then we take you to the final words of the university’s official statement Wednesday. The university announced it will institute a women’s varsity rugby team to replace the competitive cheer that Judge Underhill declared “is still too underdeveloped and disorganized to be treated as offering genuine varsity athletic participation opportunities for students.”

Let there be no clearer message for the volleyball program that Team Lahey will not stop until it gets you out.

We say this with full appreciation that built into the verdict is the implicit understanding that Quinnipiac cannot retaliate against the women’s volleyball program.

But if in five years Quinnipiac tries to eliminate volleyball — assuming they are in full Title IX compliance after doing so — what is the likelihood that another coach or players will be willing to go through the same knockdown, drag-out fight in court? It has consumed the life of Quinnipiac coach Robin Sparks for the last two years.

Ironically, there are less Division I women’s rugby teams than there are competitive cheer teams. The biggest difference is that women’s rugby, which does include a sizeable number of club teams, is on the list of “emerging NCAA sports for women.”

That’s the legitimacy that competitive cheer lacked, legally speaking.

Quinnipiac isn’t even trying to disguise its motives here. They are transparent and one might say ruthless. The university merely selected from the following menu of emerging women’s sports:

1. Sand volleyball.

Not enough beaches or sun in Hamden – though it might have been well-attended by the media. Continued...

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2. Equestrian.

No horse stables, way too costly, and wouldn’t provide sufficient opportunities for women to affect Title IX.

3. Squash.

No courts, too preppy.

4. Rugby.

Bingo. All you need is a cow pasture, a funny looking ball and a lot of Band-Aids. The obligatory post-match keg parties come with some risk of scandal, but it’s a sport that can provide a reasonably large pool of women to help balance the books of gender equity.

So today there may be closure to a legal battle that has gained national attention over the past two years. But there are no winners — only a university without good faith; and a volleyball program without a chance to prosper.

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