NCAA bans trans athletes from women’s sports after Trump executive order

The NCAA voted Thursday to ban male-born students from women’s sports, retreating on years of transgender inclusion just one day after President Trump signed an executive order on female scholastic sports.

NCAA President Charlie Baker said the updated transgender participation policy, passed by the board of governors, limits competition in women’s sports to student-athletes “assigned female at birth only,” although it allows male-born students to practice with women’s teams.

“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,” Mr. Baker said in a statement. “To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.”

The NCAA policy takes effect immediately and applies to all athletes, including transgender students cleared to compete in women’s sports under the previous policy.

On Wednesday, Mr. Trump signed the Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports executive order, which prohibits biological males from competing on girls’ and women’s teams in K-12 and collegiate athletics.

The Department of Education followed up by opening a Title IX investigation into the University of Pennsylvania and San Jose State University, which have allowed male-born players to compete on women’s teams.

Both are NCAA Division I schools. Penn featured high-profile cases of a transgender person on its women’s swimming team, and women’s volleyball players have refused to compete with San Jose State because of a transgender team member.

Mr. Baker said Wednesday that the board would seek to update its transgender policy to “align” with the order, but the speed of the reversal stunned observers, including right-of-center women’s groups that have battled the NCAA for years over sex versus gender identity in sports.

“Huge win: Until now, NCAA’s participation policy allowed men who self-identified as women to take trophies, roster spots, resources, & opportunities to compete from women,” the Independent Women’s Forum said on X. “That changes today!”

Critics accused the NCAA of approving a solution in search of a problem. In December, Mr. Baker said fewer than 10 student-athletes were transgender, all of them biological males who identify as women. The NCAA counts 530,000 athletes at its 1,100 member universities in 50 states.

“There is not a ‘problem’ with trans athletes. It’s a fiction. Which makes it all the more disheartening to see the NCAA ‘moving rapidly’ to comply,” Minnesota state Rep. Leigh Finke, who is transgender, wrote on BlueSky shortly before the NCAA vote was announced.

The newly approved policy allows all students, regardless of sex or gender identity, to participate in men’s sports. Students of both sexes may continue to compete on mixed teams in sports such as rifle shooting.

In women’s sports, the policy states that a “student-athlete assigned male at birth may not compete for an NCAA women’s team” but allows such students to participate in practices.

“A student-athlete assigned male at birth may practice on an NCAA women’s team and receive all other benefits applicable to student-athletes,” the NCAA said. “Division I leadership is planning to adopt roster limits in place of scholarship limits and new practice squad policies are still in development.”

Transgender students who practice with women’s teams may seek to access women’s locker rooms. On that score, the NCAA isn’t the authority.

Campus policies on changing facilities often hinge on local ordinances and state laws, which means athletic programs in liberal states may permit male-born athletes who identify as female to undress and shower with female athletes to prevent discrimination.

Former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Paula Scanlan praised Mr. Trump for “leading the NCAA to do the right thing when it comes to collegiate sports and fairness,” but she raised privacy concerns.

“As a sexual assault survivor, I was forced to undress 18 times per week with a fully intact male on my women’s swim team — who, under these new policies, could be permitted to practice with our team,” Ms. Scanlan said. Lia Thomas is a former teammate.

She urged states to “protect women’s intimate spaces beyond sports competitions — we deserve safety and privacy in every aspect of athletics.”

Mr. Trump’s executive order tells schools to “take all appropriate action to affirmatively protect all-female athletic opportunities and all-female locker rooms.”

The board directed its staff to “help all member schools foster respectful and inclusive collegiate athletic cultures” and make mental health services available to student-athletes under its updated Mental Health Best Practices policy.

“The updated policy combined with these resources follows through on the NCAA’s constitutional commitment to deliver intercollegiate athletics competition and to protect, support and enhance the mental and physical health of student-athletes,” Mr. Baker said.

“This national standard brings much-needed clarity as we modernize college sports for today’s student-athletes,” he added.

The NCAA still faces two lawsuits from current and former athletes over its transgender eligibility policy, backed by the Independent Council on Women’s Sports.

The latest lawsuit, filed by three former Penn swimmers, seeks to vacate the awards given to transgender swimmer Thomas and create a class-action claim for the 200 Ivy League women who competed against the Quakers during the 2021-2022 season.

For years, the NCAA allowed male-born students to compete in women’s sports as long as they kept their testosterone levels below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least a year. The organization passed the buck in January 2022 amid the Thomas outcry.

The NCAA adopted a sport-by-sport approach, with the national governing bodies determining the eligibility standards for male-to-female transgender athletes.