The NCAA updated its transgender athletes policy on Thursday to limit competition in women’s sports to those assigned female at birth, following the Trump administration’s executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports.

The Board of Governors voted to update the Association’s participation policy for transgender student-athletes.

NCAA’s new transgender athletes policy 

According to the NCAA, the new policy limits competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only. 

Now, the policy only permits student-athletes assigned male at birth to practice with women’s teams and receive benefits such as medical care while practicing. Division I leadership is planning to adopt roster limits in place of scholarship limits and new practice squad policies are still in development.

The NCAA said a student-athlete assigned female at birth who has begun hormone therapy (e.g., testosterone) may not compete on a women’s team. If such competition occurs, the team will be subject to NCAA mixed-team legislation, and the team will no longer be eligible for NCAA women’s championships. They may continue practicing with a women’s team and receive all other benefits applicable to student-athletes.

Individual schools have the autonomy to determine athletics participation on their campuses. Sports with mixed men’s and women’s NCAA championships are exempt from this policy. 

Policy effective immediately

NCAA said the policy is effective immediately and applies to all student-athletes regardless of previous eligibility reviews under the NCAA’s prior transgender participation policy.

What they’re saying:

“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,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement.

President Trump signs executive order on transgender athletes

It comes a day after President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to prevent transgender athletes from participating in women’s or girls’ sporting events.

The timing of the order coincided with National Girls and Women in Sports Day, and is the latest in a string of executive actions from Trump aimed at transgender people.

The order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” gives federal agencies, including the Justice and Education departments, wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration’s view, which interprets “sex” as the gender someone was assigned at birth. 

What they’re saying:

“With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over,” Trump said at a signing ceremony. 

What is Title IX? 

Dig deeper:

Title IX law is best known for its role in pursuing gender equity in athletics and preventing sexual harassment on campuses. Every administration has the authority to issue its own interpretations of the Title IX legislation. 

Betsy DeVos, the education secretary during Trump’s first term, issued a Title IX policy in 2020 that narrowed the definition of sexual harassment and required colleges to investigate claims only if they’re reported to certain officials.

The Biden administration rolled back that policy last April with one of its own that stipulated the rights of LGBTQ+ students would be protected by federal law and provided new safeguards for victims of campus sexual assault. The policy stopped short of explicitly addressing transgender athletes. Still, more than a half-dozen Republican-led states immediately challenged the new rule in court.