How The NCAA Is Still Betraying Female Athletes

Following a victory in federal court dismissing the case of swimmer Riley Gaines and a dozen other female athletes suing for sex discrimination, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) issued a statement claiming that it is in “full compliance with the Trump administration’s executive order on women’s sports.”  That claim is a lie.

Under his watch, NCAA President Charlie Baker has led a misogynist organization failing women athletes. Today he is popping a cork for beating NCAA female athletes in court over Title IX technicalities because a rookie Biden judge decided Title IX doesn’t apply to the NCAA, only to every member institution that funds the NCAA with their multi-million-dollar athletic programs.

On day one of his administration, President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”  The order clearly defines the meaning of “sex,” what a woman (and man) is, and the terms “male” and “female.”  It states:

(a) “Sex” shall refer to an individual’s immutable biological classification as either male or female. “Sex” is not a synonym for and does not include the concept of “gender identity.

(b) “Women” or “woman” and “girls” or “girl” shall mean adult and juvenile human females, respectively.

(c) “Men” or “man” and “boys” or “boy” shall mean adult and juvenile human males, respectively.

(d) “Female” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the large reproductive cell.

(e) “Male” means a person belonging, at conception, to the sex that produces the small reproductive cell.

Soon after, President Trump signed a companion order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”  It states:

The definitions in Executive Order 14168 of January 20, 2025 (Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government), shall apply to this order.

For the NCAA to be “in full compliance” with Trump’s executive order on women’s sports, the NCAA must adopt this definition of “sex”, male and female, men and women, in its rules and bylaws. It has not.

To date, the NCAA has no rule that defines “sex” as ordered by the president. It has not changed its bylaws to protect the eligibility for women’s teams based only on sex, and it has not defined what a woman is.

What has the NCAA done? It merely changed its “transgender student-athlete participation policy” to clarify when and how a man who identifies as a woman can play on women’s teams.

First, the NCAA defines “Sex Assigned at Birth” as, “The male or female designation doctors assign to infants at birth, which is marked on their birth records.”

This is not a definition of sex reflecting science like the president’s order. This definition makes a person’s sex something “assigned,” not immutable. That is why the phrase is a trope of transactivists; suggesting sex is “assigned” means it could be wrong.

Second, the NCAA’s policy, which it claims complies with the president’s order, allows men who identify as women to participate on women’s teams for practice and all other benefits, including women’s locker rooms.  It only prohibits competition. So under the NCAA rules,  “male sex assigned at birth” athletes are fully eligible for the NCAA women’s team and treated as a “woman.”

That is NOT what President Trump has ordered in his promise to keep men out of women’s sports.  It is an insult and injustice to women athletes who are demanding, by right, to be protected as Women and Female.

If every member institution of the NCAA – all colleges and universities – must comply with a federal civil rights law prohibiting sex discrimination, why not the NCAA? Without college sports teams competing at federally funded institutions, there is no NCAA.

Female athletes of all ages are left disgusted that the NCAA walks free from responsibility for enabling a 6’4” male swimmer to parade nude in the women’s locker room and win an NCAA national championship. Male swimmer “Lia” Thomas is a product of the NCAA’s misogyny and public disregard for female dignity.

And now, President Trump’s executive order to keep men out of women’s sports gets misrepresented and misogynized by an NCAA lying about its compliance. Americans get hoodwinked by false NCAA claims when, in truth, the NCAA has done nothing to stand up for female athletes’ sex-based rights, declare its responsibility to uphold Title IX on the basis of sex, and restore the integrity and future of women’s college sports.

Congress should take note: protecting college sports demands a full reckoning of the NCAA’s failures, not a bailout.

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Doreen Denny is the Senior Advisor at Concerned Women for America, the nation’s public policy women’s organization, dedicated to promoting biblical values and constitutional principles in public policy. On X: @CWforA