Sanity has been notching up the wins at a rapid pace in recent weeks, and another big one just came in: the NCAA has banned biological males from competing on women’s teams.
Following President Trump’s signing of the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” Executive Order on Wednesday, NCAA president Charlie Baker indicated that his organization, which is the governing body of college sports, would take its cue from the president when crafting new guidelines to ensure the safety of its athletes:
“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.
“The NCAA Board of Governors is reviewing the executive order and will take necessary steps to align NCAA policy in the coming days, subject to further guidance from the administration. The Association will continue to help foster welcoming environments on campuses for all student-athletes. We stand ready to assist schools as they look for ways to support any student-athletes affected by changes in the policy.”
It looks like President Trump has, indeed, set the new “national standard” for keeping biological men out of women’s sports, as the NCAA announced Thursday afternoon that it would be banning biological males from participating on women’s teams.
Despite resorting to nonsense phrases like “assigned male at birth,” the directive makes it clear that no biological males will be competing on women’s teams and anyone, male or female, can participate on men’s teams. Those who are transitioning from female to male can only play on men’s teams, as taking substances like testosterone will make them ineligible to play with the women:
NCAA women’s sports:
A student-athlete assigned male at birth may not compete for an NCAA women’s team.
A student-athlete assigned male at birth may practice on an NCAA women’s team and receive all other benefits applicable to student-athletes. Division I leadership is planning to adopt roster limits in place of scholarship limits and new practice squad policies are still in development.
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.
A student-athlete assigned female at birth who has begun hormone therapy (e.g., testosterone) 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.
NCAA schools are subject to local, state and federal legislation and such policy supersedes the rules of the NCAA.
Sports with mixed men’s and women’s NCAA championships are exempt from this policy (e.g., rifle).
And here’s the policy for men’s sports:
NCAA men’s sports:
Regardless of sex assigned at birth or gender identity, a student-athlete may participate (practice and competition) in NCAA men’s sports, assuming they meet all other NCAA eligibility requirements.
*Student-athletes taking a banned substance (e.g., testosterone) must complete the medical exception process.
It’s an easy out for Baker and the NCAA, yes, as they could have and should have made this move a long time ago, but, instead, chose to endanger women on the field of play. One could even argue that they should have never succumbed to gender-bending rules at all, but we’ll take this win.
The important thing here is that, while probably only 1-2 percent of athletes are affected by the NCAA’s policy change, 100 percent of girls and women will be protected when participating in their chosen college sport.
The Trump White House is taking a well-earned victory lap.
