NCAA Barer Translove Athletes from Competing in Women’s College Sport | Ncaa

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NCAA changed its participation policy for transient athletes on Thursday, which only limited competition in women’s sports to athletes awarded female at birth.

The move came one day after Donald Trump signed an executive order aimed at banning transnry athletes from attending girls and women’s sports. The order provides federal agencies latitude to withhold federal funding from units that do not comply with title IX in accordance with the Trump Administration’s point of view that interprets “sex” as the gender anyone was awarded at birth.

The NCAA policy change is immediately effective and applies to all athletes regardless of previous reviews of eligibility under NCAA’s previous policy for transgender’s participation policy. The organization has more than 1,200 schools with more than 500,000 athletes, easily the largest control body for college athletics in the United States.

“We are convinced that clear, consistent and uniform standards of eligibility will best serve today’s student athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state law and legal decisions,” said NCAA’s president, Charlie Baker. “For this purpose, President Trump’s order gives a clear national standard.”

NCAA’s revised policy allows athletes who are assigned male at birth to practice with women’s teams and receive benefits such as medical treatment while practicing.

Baker added that NCAA is still required to “protect, support and improve the mental and physical health of student athletes”, referring to a recent update to Guidelines for mental health.

“This national standard brings much needed clarity as we modernize university sports for today’s student athletes,” Baker said.

After the executive order, the Trump Administration said on Thursday that it was investigating potential “violations of civil rights” at two universities and a high school sports league that Allowed trans athletes To compete for women’s teams. The Education Department opened reviews of San Jose State University, Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association and the University of Pennsylvania.