The NCAA, the governing body of university sports in the United States, has issued a new policy restricting women’s sports competition to student-athletes who are assigned only to women at birth.
The National University Athletics Association, released Thursday, said the policy was applied to all athletes and was in effect immediately.
The policy change came just after President Donald Trump signed an executive order that prevented trans women from competing in sports in the women’s category.
NCAA Chairman Charlie Baker said the change would instead be “clear, consistent, uniform eligibility standards” as “under Trump’s new order” instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions. He said that.
The NCAA consists of 1,100 universities from all 50 states that collectively enroll more than 50,000 student-athletes.
Baker told the Senate committee in December that the NCAA has “less than 10” trans athletes.
The new policy allows student-athletes to allow male athletes assigned at birth to practice with their female teams and receive healthcare-like benefits, but not to compete.
Under Trump’s executive order, the education department is directed to investigate schools for violations.
Those who violate may violate Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools.
“From now on, women’s sports will be for women only,” Trump said after signing the order on Wednesday.
Advocates of the Order say it will restore fairness in the sport, but LGBT advocacy and human rights groups have described the move as discriminatory.
On Thursday, the education department released an investigation of three schools “on alleged violations of Title IX.”
The two universities are suspected of allowing trans athletes to participate in women’s sports after being notified of a change in the title IX of the Scholastic Athletic Association between San Jose State, the University of Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
The NCAA Eligibility Policy for Transgender Athletes was last updated in January 2022 by the Board of Directors.
The policy described the participation of transgender student-athletes as a “sport-by-sport approach” that is consistent with policies of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and International Olympic Committee.
In response to the NCAA announcement, Republican Rep. Andy Ogle praised the move, saying in X “There is no better biological male in women’s sports.”
Nancy Armour, a sports columnist for USA Today, said the sports body “lost its common sense along with its spine,” and that there have been years of policy allowing transgender participation in organizations like the NCAA.
Marcel Afram, a trans rights activist and transgender man, said Trump’s orders were “a blatant attack on trans rights and feeding anti-trans hysterical culture wars.”
“It’s another obvious attempt to police transbodies, further alienating the already vulnerable community,” he told the BBC.
The day before Trump signs the order – titled “Stops men from women’s sports” – Three former University of Pennsylvania swimmers sued the NCAA, the University of Pennsylvania and others.
The lawsuit alleges that the organization violated Title IX by allowing former transgender teammate Leah Thomas to compete with them.
A study by the UCLA Williams Institute found that less than 1% of the U.S. population aged 13 and older are transgender, with fewer sports.
The latest activities are part of the policy shift under the new administration.
On his first day in office, Trump signed another executive order that required the federal government to officially define gender as either male or female.
