Female Athletes Celebrate as NCAA Changes Transgender Policy

Female athletes have lobbied the National Collegiate Athletics Association for years to limit women’s sports to biological women. After an executive order from the president of the United States on Wednesday to keep men out of women’s sports at institutions that receive federal funding, it’s finally happening. 

Members of Concerned Women for America and Independent Women’s Forum celebrated a victory Thursday when the NCAA changed its participation policy for “transgender” student-athletes, limiting competition in collegiate women’s sports to women.

“The new policy limits competition in women’s sports to student-athletes assigned female at birth only,” the NCAA said in a press release shared with The Daily Signal.

The change to NCAA guidelines comes one day after President Donald Trump issued an executive order “Keeping Men out of Women’s Sports,” which banned men from participating in women’s sports. 

“We strongly believe that clear, consistent, and uniform eligibility standards would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a press release. “To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.”

The change protects the purpose of Title IX federal law and what women have been fighting for years to protect, collegiate volleyball player Sia Liilii told The Daily Signal. Title IX was instituted in 1972 to ensure that females couldn’t be denied participation in education programs and activities that receive federal funding. It essentially led to the creation of women’s and girls sports teams at most schools and universities.

“This is great news for female athletes competing in the NCAA,” Liilii said. “This gives collegiate female athletes the opportunity to champion their sports on a fair and even playing field.”

The senior and co-captain of the University of Nevada-Reno women’s volleyball team received criticism from her university and the NCAA when she and her teammates forfeited their match against San Jose State University after San Jose allowed a male athlete on the team. Since Fall 2024, she has been working as an ambassador with the nonprofit advocacy group Independent Women’s Forum to affect change in the NCAA and protect women’s sports.

“As an athlete who received a full scholarship to play the sport I love while getting an education, this is a truly unforgettable day,” Liilii said. “I am grateful to finally be heard and attribute this success to President Trump’s executive order applying very necessary pressure on private organizations like the NCAA.”

Former college volleyball player Macy Petty has also been advocating for change in the NCAA as a legislative strategist for the nonprofit group Concerned Women for America. Petty said the change is a huge win for women after a decade of fighting.

“My entire four years under their governance, I was asking to have a conversation about [NCAA] policies that were putting me at risk, and all I got was a closed door every time,” Petty told The Daily Signal. “This is a huge win, but their motivations could not be clearer. Their priority is not with female athletes but with political convenience.”

While Petty said she is grateful for the policy change, she also called for a change of leadership in the NCAA and for the association to do more for women who were wronged under the previous policy. 

“They were not willing to protect female athletes unless the president of the United States forced them to do it, and that calls for a complete clean house of NCAA,” Petty said. “If you will not prioritize the safety of female athletes, you do not deserve to be in that kind of position of authority.”

She also urged the NCAA to strike the records in women’s athletics currently held by men.

“I would like them to apologize to every female athlete that has been sidelined, who has lost an opportunity to race for a championship,” Petty said. “Every single athlete that the NCAA has failed deserves an apology from leadership.”

Independent Women’s Forum spokeswoman and former collegiate volleyball player Adriana McLamb helps athletes play in the NCAA as a volleyball recruiting coordinator. She said she has been lobbying the NCAA for years to make this change but received little response. 

“We found a lot of passing the buck, waiting for something else to happen,” McLamb said. “It’s very much that it wasn’t a small nudge, but a big push that President Trump had to give the NCAA for them to make this decision. They didn’t do it without that push, but I’m glad to see that they finally did.”

The change to the NCAA policy follows a series of victories for the movement to protect women’s sports. In the past two months alone, a federal court found the Biden administration’s new interpretation of Title IX that allowed men to participate in women’s sports unlawful in the State of Tennessee v. Cardona, the House of Representatives passed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025, and Trump issued his executive order.

“It’s just continuing the momentum, and we’re looking forward to seeing the next step, which is the Senate ensuring that they pass the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 and ensure that this is codified into law,” McLamb said. 

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025, sponsored by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., would require that, for the purposes of compliance with Title IX, sex be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth, not a gender they may choose to identify as. It would ban federal funding for any institution that allows so-called transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports. 

Under the new NCAA policy, transgender athletes are still allowed to practice with women’s teams, but they are not allowed to compete. Because the NCAA recently started limiting roster slots, this means biological men cannot take official roster slots from women. 

“I’m really excited after years and years of being at the doorsteps of the NCAA and being on their heels, they finally have made a change,” McLamb said.

“This could not have happened without the advocacy we all put in, sharing our stories to empower the adults in power to affect change,” Liilii said.

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