NCAA President Charlie Baker said Sunday that the collegiate sports organization does not plan to change its rules on transgender athletes following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing states to ban them from school athletics.
NCAA policy unchanged after Supreme Court ruling
In an interview with CBS News' Face the Nation, Baker noted that the NCAA effectively banned transgender athletes from women's sports in late January 2025, closing those programs to athletes assigned male at birth or undergoing testosterone therapy. No restrictions exist for men's sports, which Baker called "the open network."
The NCAA implemented the ban in response to an executive order signed by President Donald Trump early in his second term. "We needed some sort of clarity around what the national standard for this would be – and we adopted and comply with the standard that was put forth by the administration," Baker, the former Republican governor of Massachusetts, told CBS senior political correspondent Ed O'Keefe. "I think what happens at the state level is a different question."
Supreme Court decision upholds state bans
The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on June 30 to uphold laws in West Virginia and Idaho that exclude transgender girls and women from competing in female sports. The decision overturned lower court rulings in favor of two transgender students who had sued after being barred from competition. The majority held that such bans do not violate Title IX, the civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education.
The ruling is expected to have far-reaching consequences, as at least 25 other states have enacted similar prohibitions. The decision also represents a victory for Trump, who campaigned on the issue of "men in women's sports" during the 2024 election.
Impact on ongoing litigation
States with bans are likely to view the Supreme Court's decision as validation, though its effect on challenges to laws in California and Connecticut remains unclear. The three liberal justices dissented from the ruling.
Baker told Congress in 2024 that he was aware of only 10 transgender athletes out of more than 500,000 student athletes at NCAA schools. The issue gained attention partly due to Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer turned anti-trans activist who tied for fifth place with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA championships.
Inclusivity and NCAA priorities
When asked by O'Keefe to rank this issue among critical ones facing the NCAA, Baker said: "I can tell you that having talked to people on both sides of this issue – to those who are involved in it, it matters a lot."
O'Keefe then asked if inclusivity is an NCAA priority and whether the current policy makes the organization inclusive enough. "Yeah, I do," Baker responded. "I don't have a problem … with the way that policy currently operates. And frankly, I don't think many of our schools do either."
