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Virginia Tech Softball Outfielder Sues NCAA Over Eligibility

The graduate student is currently ineligible to play in 2026.
Maren Angus-Coombs|
Virginia Tech outfielder Bre Warren is suing the NCAA over eligibility.
Virginia Tech outfielder Bre Warren is suing the NCAA over eligibility. | VT Athletics/ Texas A&M Athletics

When Bre Warren transferred to Virginia Tech in July 2025, she was looking forward to finishing her career in 2026 with a chance of playing in the postseason, maybe even the Women's College World Series.

Now, the outielder finds herself going to court with the NCAA.

Warren filed a motion for preliminary injunction against the NCAA in Montgomery County Circuit Court on Monday after the NCAA denied an appeal made by Warren and Virginia Tech for an extension of eligibility waiver for the 2026 season.

Virginia Tech, on Warren’s behalf, submitted a request for the extension of eligibility waiver on Oct. 30, 2025. That request was denied, and the appeal was denied on Feb. 26 after the Hokies had already played 13 games.

“I transferred to Virginia Tech to play softball for the Hokies. Unfortunately, the NCAA disregarded its own rules and prohibited me from playing despite circumstances outside my control preventing me from playing softball last year. I filed this lawsuit because it was my only option to enforce my rights and let me finish my collegiate career playing the sport I love,” Warren said in a written statement obtained by Damien Sordelett of The Roanoke Times.

“We are asking the Court for emergency relief to allow Bre Warren to play softball for Virginia Tech this season, her last opportunity to do, and we look forward to moving this case forward,” Warren’s attorneys, John P. Fishwick Jr., Carrol M. Ching, and Daniel J. Martin, said in a press statement.

Warren has played three seasons of college softball and was not on a roster in 2025. This is her final year of eligibility.

As a freshman at Texas A&M in 2021, Warren earned All-SEC First Team honors. She batted .308 with 11 doubles, two triples, three homers, and 28 RBIs for the Aggies.

Warren redshirted in 2022 because of a shoulder injury and then played as a redshirt-sophomore in 2023, appearing in 42 games and making 23 starts. She hit .182 with six doubles and three RBIs.

Warren transferred to South Carolina after the 2023 season, which complicated her track to graduation. She intended to graduate with her undergraduate degree at the end of the 2023-24 season, but she was released by Texas A&M and transferred.

According to court documents, Warren's academic advisor at South Carolina recommended a class she had already taken at Texas A&M, and she was three credit hours shy of graduating. Therefore, she wouldn't be able to graduate until December 2024.

During this time, South Carolina parted ways with longtime head coach Beverly Smith and hired Ashley Chastain Woodard, who then released Warren and prevented her from playing for the Gamecocks during the 2025 season. She still graduated from South Carolina in December 2024.

Hilary Cox, South Carolina’s executive associate athletics director for strategic initiatives, told Warren she could not transfer between the fall and spring semester and be immediately eligible to play, according to the injunction, which directly contradicts NCAA Bylaw 14.6.1.2, which says students who graduate can transfer to another institution and receive immediate eligibility.

“Thus, it is clear from this Bylaw that Plaintiff could have transferred between the fall and spring semesters of the 2024-2025 school year and immediately played in the spring 2025 season at the transfer institution,” the injunction says. “However, based on the written, clearly erroneous guidance provided by USC and its compliance staff, Bre reasonably believed she did not have that option.”

The motion also claims that she was “subjected to severe harassment, ridicule, bullying and discrimination by the USC coaching staff, including on the basis of race,” during her lone season in Columbia. It said neither Smith nor any assistants intervened.

In Warren's only season at South Carolina, she appeared in 39 games, made 27 starts, and hit .175 with four doubles and 11 RBIs.

Warren's lawyers filed a notice of hearing for April 13.

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Maren Angus-Coombs
MAREN ANGUS-COOMBS

Maren Angus-Coombs was born in Los Angeles and raised in Nashville, Tenn. She is a graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and has been a sports writer since 2008. She has been covering college softball since 2016 for various outlets including Softball America, ESPNW and Hurrdat Sports. She is currently the managing editor of Softball On SI and also serves as an analyst for Nebraska softball games on Nebraska Public Media and B1G+.

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