The Ohio State University women’s rugby club was barred from competition for going topless in front of the Lincoln Memorial earlier this month, a harsh penalty for a harmless, and completely legal, stunt.

The past weeks have been a painful odyssey for the team, ending lamentably when the Midwest Rugby Union ended the team’s season. Initially, Ohio State athletic officials responded by terminating the team’s season but relented when the players apologized.

The episode is a joke turned travesty. If a photo of the women’s backs had not appeared in The Washington Post, the situation probably wouldn’t have received such excessive attention from either Ohio State’s athletic department or the Midwest Rugby Union. Both were understandably embarrassed by the stunt, but each responded with unfair punishments, with the former rescinding its sanctions.

The unfair treatment of the Ohio State women’s rugby team can be viewed as a symptom of gender inequality or simply a result of the relatively small following of the sport. Obviously, if the women had been men and taken their shirts off in public, nothing would have come of it. And if members of the Ohio State football team had performed similar antics, sanctions probably would have been much less severe.

One Midwest Rugby Union official, Tom Rooney, said, We felt the girls needed some punishment even though they broke no laws.

His use of the term girls is disturbing, but pales in comparison to the injustice of the body’s sanctions. The act might be considered by some as indecent, but the Ohio State rugby players broke no laws, and, thus, punishment should be minimal.

Ohio State University accepted the players’ apologies for tarnishing the name of the school, and reversed its sanctions. The Midwest Rugby Union should do the same.