September 11th, 2024
Last month, Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn sent a letter to NCAA President Charlie Baker urging him to deny biological males from competing in women’s sports.
The letter was signed by 23 United States Senators, including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Josh Hawley and former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville.
“Amid the Biden—Harris administration’s unprecedented assault on Title IX, we write to urge the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to update your student-athlete participation policy to require that only biologically female students participate in women’s sports,” the letter began.
“The science is clear. Males have inherent athletic advantages over females due to their anatomy and biology… To allow biological men to compete in women’s sports, while considering testosterone a performance enhancer, is intellectually dishonest. These facts cannot continue to be ignored by the NCAA.” OutKick obtained an exclusive copy of the response sent by Baker to Blackburn and the other U.S. Senators.
In the letter, Baker says that the current NCAA policy surrounding transgender athletes is “more restrictive than the policy established in 2010.”
In addition, Baker passes the buck by saying that the NCAA simply follows what other governing bodies are doing with regard to biological male participation in female sports.
“The NCAA policy seeks to align with other national governing bodies’ policies because many college athletes either competed under those previously or may go on to do so,” Baker wrote.
“The NCAA’s transgender student-athlete participation policy is not mandatory, and federal, state and local laws supersede the Association’s policy. Schools may also choose to operate in a different way due to institutional values,” he continues.
“The conflicting regulations, state laws and court decisions have created inconsistent and changing rules across the U.S. The NCAA and the 500,000 student-athletes we serve would welcome a clear, national policy on this topic,” Baker’s letter concludes. Translation: I don’t want to have to make a decision, so I call on other people to do it for me so that I don’t have to face criticism or scrutiny.
OutKick asked Sen. Blackburn if she had a response to Baker’s letter.
“I appreciate President Baker’s prompt response to our letter, but anything less than a commitment to barring biological men from competing in women’s sports isn’t good enough,” Blackburn told OutKick.
“Biological men have an inherent athletic advantage over females due to their anatomy and biology, and the NCAA must join other athletic organizations to ensure fair play instead of ignoring the facts.”
Recently, the NAIA banned biological males from competing in women’s sports, something that the NCAA could do if it wanted to.
However, it’s clear that Charlie Baker and the NCAA Board of Governors are afraid to make a decision that might anger trans ideologists, even if it puts female athletes at risk for injury or invasions of privacy.
So, they continue to wait for other people to tell them what to do.