The NCAA announced Thursday it would no longer allow transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports and would limit participation to those assigned female at birth.
The policy change, approved by the NCAA board of governors, comes one day after President Trump signed an executive order barring transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
“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,” NCAA President Charlie Baker, former Republican governor of Massachusetts, said in a statement Thursday.
“To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard,” he added.
The NCAA policy change is effective immediately and applies universally in women’s sports, regardless of eligibility under the previous policy. Transgender athletes are still eligible to participate in the men’s category, under the updated policy.
Previously, the NCAA policy said transgender participation in each sport depended on guidelines set by the sport’s national or international governing body.
Transgender inclusion in women’s sports has become a political lightning rod, dividing the nation and playing an increasingly central role in political campaigns. Trump’s executive order this week fulfilled a long-standing campaign promise that rallied much of his base ahead of the election.
Baker told a Senate panel that there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes he is aware of who currently compete in college sports, accounting for less than 0.002 percent of NCAA athletes nationwide.
The NCAA includes 1,100 colleges and universities, accounting for more than 530,000 student-athletes, Baker said.
At least one NCAA official resigned following the announcement Thursday. Jack Turban said on social media that he was resigning from the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports.
“Unfortunately, your recent decision to issue a blanket ban on trans female participation in women’s sports does not align with [medical] or scientific consensus,” Turban wrote in a letter to Baker. “I cannot in good conscience participate in this kind of politicization of science and medicine at the expense of some of our most vulnerable student-athletes.”
Turban told The Hill that he and other committee members were not given advance notice of the board’s vote before the public announcement.
Brooke Migdon contributed.
