NCAA Bars Transgender Women From Competing In Women’s Sports Following Trump Executive Order

The National Collegiate Athletic Association changed its transgender participation policy, disallowing transgender women from competing on women’s teams, one day after President Donald Trump banned transgender women from women’s athletics at colleges and schools.

The policy changes will apply to all of Harvard’s 42 Division 1 teams, which play under NCAA rules.

The NCAA’s policy, which previously required that transgender female athletes follow specific regulations defined by each sport, now bans them from any competition in women’s sports, regardless of whether they are receiving hormone treatment.

Trump’s Wednesday executive order promised to “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities.” Hours after Trump signed the order, Harvard removed its Transgender Inclusion Policy from the athletics website. Harvard Athletics’ website still defers to the NCAA’s webpage for all questions regarding policy on transgender athletes.

The NCAA will still allow transgender women to “practice on the team consistent with their gender identity and receive all other benefits applicable to student-athletes who are otherwise eligible for practice.”

NCAA President Charlie D. Baker ’79 wrote in the association’s policy announcement that Trump’s order “provides a clear, national standard” for student-athlete eligibility.

“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,” he wrote.

Consistent with the previous regulations — which were originally released in 2010 and revised in 2022 — trans men who have begun testosterone treatment will be required to play on a men’s team. The policy allows athletes of any sex or gender identity to participate in men’s sports, clarifying previous policies regarding participation in men’s sports.

Both Harvard and the NCAA have recently found themselves under fire for allowing transgender athletes to compete.

On Tuesday, three former swimmers at the University of Pennsylvania filed suit against Harvard, Penn, the Ivy League, and the NCAA, claiming that the defendants violated Title IX regulations by allowing Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to compete in the 2022 Ivy League Championship at Harvard.

Trump has worked aggressively to wield Title IX regulations against transgender women and remove transgender people from federal policy.

He previously signed orders directing federal agencies to remove policies that “promote or otherwise inculcate gender ideology” and reverted Title IX guidance to those in place during his previous term, instructing agencies not to enforce sexual harassment claims based on gender identity.

—Staff writer Elyse C. Goncalves can be reached at elyse.goncalves@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @e1ysegoncalves.

—Staff writer Akshaya Ravi can be reached at akshaya.ravi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @akshayaravi22.