Eastern Michigan University doesn't have to meet a court order to hire a new softball coach by Monday, an appeals court ruled late Thursday, even while saying a lower court's "ruling on the underlying Title IX issues seems sound."

The three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals said it was issuing the ruling because of financial arguments made by Eastern Michigan.

The fiscal harm identified by the defendants — the immediate cost of re-starting a women’s softball team this spring that cannot begin competing until next fall at the earliest— is substantial and certain to occur, the panel wrote in its ruling. "That cost also comes too late to deal with the softball players who could not play last year or this year, though all scholarships are being honored. No one challenges the budgetary challenges facing the university and no one doubts they animated the university’s choices."

The panel even had a suggestion of what might happen next.

"The reality that this thoughtful district court judge can and should insist that the university prepare a Title IX-compliant proposal for the start of the 2019 school year next fall. That will allow the court to assess the degree to which the re-creation of the women’s tennis team corrects the Title IX deficiencies and determine what the university plans to do going forward to correct any remaining deficiencies."

The lower-court judge ordered the Eastern's softball and women's tennis teams, which were cut because of budget concerns, reinstated after finding Eastern was out of compliance with Title IX, a federal law mandating equal opportunity for male and female students.

More:EMU: Judge can't play athletic director and order softball, tennis teams

More:EMU doesn't want to restart women's softball, suggests lacrosse instead

Eastern doesn't want to restart a softball program. Instead, the financially struggling school wants to start a women's lacrosse team, in part because there are more players on a lacrosse team and the school can get more tuition payments from them.

"Title IX does not permit federal judges to serve as athletic directors." Eastern's lawyers wrote in its appeal. "If the preliminary injunction stands, EMU will be forced to divert resources from the creation and expansion of other women’s sports programs that it believes offer greater opportunity for female student-athletes in a far more economically sustainable manner. These potential harms are even more acute because EMU faces severe budget issues. The injunction also offends the public interest in federalism and comity by substituting a federal judge’s views on how to run a university athletic department for those of the elected and appointed public officials responsible for the academic, financial, and general well-being of EMU."

The suit was filed after Eastern cut a number of sports programs in an ongoing effort to trim its budget. The moves affected 58 male student-athletes and 25 female student-athletes, and will ultimately save approximately $2.4 million.

Ariana Chretien played two seasons of softball at Eastern. It was the combination of a scholarship offer and the chance to study aviation at the school that brought her to Ypsilanti, she told the Free Press when the suit was filed.

Chretien, who went to high school at Walled Lake Northern, said she had looked at other schools for a transfer.

"I got offers from schools that had money for scholarships, but not aviation," she said then. "I've also found places that had aviation but didn't have money for scholarships."

The other player to file the suit was Marie Mayerovo, a tennis player, who said if she wanted to transfer, she would have to go back to her home country of the Czech Republic and apply for a new student visa.

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8851 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj