NCAA Touts ‘Fairness’ But Refuses To Ban Men From Girls’ Sports

Last week, thousands of collegiate athletic officials gathered for the NCAA’s annual convention, where they touted their latest fundraising tactics, debated how to be “more inclusive” of non-athlete and LGBT students, and argued over the effects of sports betting. The most important and pressing topic — whether female athletes have the right to play on sex-exclusive teams — was barely mentioned and even avoided. 

It’s this question, however, that will determine the NCAA’s credibility as an athletic governing body. 

The NCAA changed its participation policy in 2010 to allow trans-identifying males to play in women’s sporting events as long as they had undergone one year of testosterone suppression. After it became clear this rule resulted in stolen opportunities from female athletes, the organization changed its policy again in 2022 to allow individual sports to determine their own eligibility requirements. 

Officials claimed this update was their best shot at securing “inclusivity” and “fairness” for both female and transgender athletes. But the NCAA’s female athletes would beg to differ. 

Just this past year, five Division I women’s volleyball teams were forced to give up the opportunity to compete, forfeiting matches against a regional rival that included a trans-identifying male player on its team. The alternative — competing against the physically dominant male player who ended the season with 314 kill shots — posed risks that would have jeopardized the female players’ safety. 

Sadly, concerns about the female athletes’ well-being were sidelined by university officials, and by NCAA officials who refused to step in. 

In an exclusive series for Independent Women Features released last week, several players on the University of Nevada, Reno’s women’s volleyball team revealed that university administrators pressured them to proceed with their scheduled match against the male player, insisting their concerns about fair and safe competition were “misinformed” and “uneducated.”

The only ones “misinformed” are those who continue to deny the obvious physical differences between the sexes. On average, male volleyball players can spike the ball 20-30 percent harder than females; they can jump around 4 to 6 inches higher than females; they have higher stamina and endurance than females; and on and on. These biological realities do not change, even if one’s “gender identity” does. It takes willful ignorance to pretend otherwise. 

Far too many leaders, especially those at the top of athletic organizations such as the NCAA, have chosen ignorance over common sense for fear of appearing “discriminatory.” But by permitting the invasion of women’s sports, the NCAA has chosen a different, albeit Left-wing-approved, form of discrimination: one that strips female athletes of their private spaces, their teams, and their opportunities.

The University of Nevada, Reno’s women’s volleyball team wasn’t willing to take this insult sitting down. Despite the school’s attempts to move forward with the NCAA-sanctioned match against the trans-identifying male player, 16 of the team’s 17 female players refused to play. In so doing, they proved they have something else the NCAA seems to be missing: courage.

Though the NCAA’s Board of Governors has said its transgender participation policy is under review once again, the organization appears reluctant to reverse its disastrous 2022 policy of its own accord. In a statement to reporters before his address at the NCAA Convention last week, NCAA President Charlie Baker claimed he can’t commit to any changes until additional federal guidance is released. NCAA Board of Governors Chair Linda Livingstone likewise stated they will “continue to monitor potential changes in Title IX regulations, the outcomes of pending lawsuits, and impact of changes at the federal level.”

By that, Baker and Livingstone almost certainly are referring to President Donald Trump’s pledge to use federal authority to protect women’s sports. Already this week, Trump signed an executive order clarifying that there are only two sexes and that they are not interchangeable.

There will be more from the White House on this matter. But the NCAA doesn’t need to wait for Trump to issue additional guidance and force its hand. The organization has the chance right now to lead on this issue instead of waiting on the sidelines for the Trump administration, or a federal judge, or whomever else, to change the NCAA’s policy for it. 

Sia Liilii, McKenna Dressel, Kinsley Singleton, and the other players on the University of Nevada, Reno’s women’s volleyball team certainly didn’t have the option of waiting in the background when their physical safety was put on the line. They deserve leaders who are willing to take a stand, just like they were.

Instead of reacting to the shifting political tides, the NCAA ought to choose to be a proactive participant in the fight to return our country and culture to sanity. Make no mistake: we will win this fight with or without Baker and his fellow athletic leaders. But it sure would be nice to have some more allies along the way.

Kaylee McGhee White is the editor-in-chief of Independent Women Features, the grassroots storytelling arm of Independent Women.