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≡ NCAA BANS TRANSGENDERS ≡
“The new policy limits competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only.”
That’s from the NCAA on Thursday afternoon, quickly complying with President Donald Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” Executive Order, about 22 hours after it was signed Wednesday.
The announcement, following approval by the NCAA Board of Governors, stated that:
“This policy is effective immediately and applies to all student-athletes regardless of previous eligibility reviews under the NCAA’s prior transgender participation policy.”
NCAA President Charlie Baker added:
“The NCAA is an organization made up of 1,100 colleges and universities in all 50 states that collectively enroll more than 530,000 student-athletes. We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions. To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.
“This national standard brings much needed clarity as we modernize college sports for today’s student-athletes.”
The new policy notes that the men’s category is essentially open, “regardless of sex assigned at birth or gender identity,” and also follows the language already included in H.R. 28, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 that was passed by the U.S. House on 14 January, and has been introduced in the Senate (S. 9), allowing men to practice with women’s teams “and receive all other benefits applicable to student-athletes who are otherwise eligible for practice.”
The NCAA’s transgender policy has been in flux. In 2010, rules required testosterone suppression therapy for men-to-women transitions for a minimum of one year. That was updated in 2022:
“NCAA policy calls for transgender participation in each sport to be determined by the policy for the national governing body of that sport. If there is no NGB policy for that sport, it would then be determined by the policy for that sport’s international federation.”
A transitional period was in effect for about a year, then:
“Beginning Aug. 1, 2023, participation in NCAA sports requires transgender student-athletes to provide documentation that meets the sport-specific standard submitted twice annually (once at the beginning of competition season and the second six months following) for one year. This process will continue annually for eligible student-athletes.
“For participation in NCAA championships, transgender athletes must additionally provide documentation of testosterone levels to the [NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports] with laboratory work completed within four weeks of the championship selections.”
Now, the NCAA has simply signed up for the women-at-birth standard implemented by the Trump Administration, noting:
“Individual schools have the autonomy to determine athletics participation on their campuses,” but also “NCAA schools are subject to local, state and federal legislation and such policy supersedes the rules of the NCAA.”
There may be litigation on the matter, but for now, the overnight policy shift has been made.
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Observed: The NCAA’s quick compliance not only acknowledged the Executive Order, but is also in line with the organization’s deep need for new laws regulating name-image-likeness rules for collegiate athletes and a desire for an anti-trust exemption to end the cascade of lawsuits by former and current players for compensation of all kinds, and collective bargaining rights.
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