The NCAA, in partnership with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump, has announced an update to its participation policy for transgender student-athletes.
The executive order directs the Department of Justice to enforce the ban from competing in the female sports category for bans assigned to men as they are assigned at birth. Schools that do not comply with the order could face loss of federal funds and potential legal action.
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Under the revised NCAA policy, the women category is currently limited to women assigned at birth. However, the male category remains open to all eligible student-athletes.
The NCAA said the new policy will soon take effect and will apply to all student-athletes, regardless of previous eligibility reviews based on the NCAA’s previous transgender participation policy.
“The NCAA is an organization consisting of 1,100 universities from all 50 states collectively registering over 550,000 student-athletes. Clear, consistent, uniform eligibility criteria will help students to today’s student-athletes instead of patchwork. We strongly believe in providing optimal service. NCAA President Charlie Baker has made conflicting state laws and their purposes, for their purposes.
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The updated policy allows student-athletes to practice with female teams at birth, but does not allow competition in NCAA women’s sports.
This policy also gives individual schools the discretion to make their own decisions regarding participation in the campaign on campus, as long as they are compliant with local, state and federal laws.
Sports with mixed championships such as rifles will not be affected by the new NCAA policy.
During a Congressional hearing in December, NCAA President Baker said of the more than 510,000 athletes competing in NCAA Sports, fewer than 10 are transgender.
