OPINION:
Women’s sports are about to take center stage in Washington.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in high-profile cases from two states seeking to protect the sex-based rights of female athletes in sports.
In a stroke of irony, the National Collegiate Athletic Association kicks off its annual convention the same day at a glitzy hotel a few miles south of the Supreme Court.
It was the transgender inclusion policy first adopted by the NCAA that seeded the meltdown of women’s sports for women only. Fallout in college sports fueled state action to enact laws protecting female student athletes. Two states, pioneering Idaho and West Virginia, are about to have their day at the high court. Oral arguments and decisions in these cases will have much to say about the NCAA’s despicable actions denying women’s rights under Title IX.
In 2019, NCAA member Franklin Pierce University rostered a three-year men’s track athlete on its women’s team under NCAA policy allowing males who identify as women to participate on women’s college teams. “CeCe” Telfer went on to win the first NCAA national championship in women’s sports despite being biologically male.
That same year, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a landmark transgender rights case that was decided in Bostock v. Clayton County. Courageous women’s groups led by Concerned Women for America on the right and the Women’s Liberation Front on the left rallied at the court to warn against the impact of stripping women of sex-based protections under law, especially in athletics.
The Bostock decision didn’t give the NCAA a green light to allow transgenderism to trump female athletes’ Title IX rights, but bad interpretations empowered NCAA activism to drive its agenda forward.
Concerned Women for America saw the looming devastation from CeCe Telfer’s victory from Day 1. It filed the first ever civil rights complaint against a college for rostering a male on the women’s team. The NCAA’s anti-woman policy also prompted Idaho state Rep. Barbara Ehardt, a former collegiate athlete and NCAA Division I coach, to sponsor the first Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.
Ms. Ehardt saw the harm being done to female student-athletes by the NCAA and was determined to save women’s sports. Her bill passed during the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020. Within days, the American Civil Liberties Union sued, using an Idaho transgender student plaintiff, Lindsay Hecox, who claimed an interest in playing college women’s sports. The NCAA made threats against Idaho’s action too.
Under President Biden, the NCAA doubled down on its transgender policy, paving the way for Ivy League swimmer Will Thomas to roster and compete on a women’s team as “Lia,” smash women’s freestyle records and win an NCAA Division I women’s national title in 2022. The University of Pennsylvania added insult to injury by nominating him as “Woman Athlete of the Year.”
This stolen success caused a national uproar. Newly appointed NCAA President Charlie Baker had the chance to change course. Instead, he and the NCAA dodged the blame for sex discrimination. Confrontational appearances with members of Congress and the testimonies of college women athletes since have steadily eroded the NCAA’s reputation on Capitol Hill.
Under President Trump, the NCAA made adjustments to its position but maintains an insulting transgender participation policy that forces female athletes to accommodate the feelings of men who self-identify as women and want to participate on women’s teams.
The NCAA’s bad standing in Congress could be blamed for the recent battle over name, image and likeness legislation coming to an abrupt halt on the House floor. Expensive ad buys and an army of well-connected K Street lobbyists were not enough to push the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act across the finish line. The bill, which would regulate name, image and likeness athlete deals in college sports and give the NCAA unprecedented protections from lawsuits, lacked the votes to pass and was tabled before a vote.
Mr. Baker thought House passage of the SCORE Act before year’s end would be a win he could showcase at the NCAA convention this month. He was wrong. The chaos in college sports has shattered the credibility of NCAA leadership and the power of conference commissioners leading the Southeastern Conference, Big Ten and Atlantic Coast Conference. For years, all have failed to heed the call for justice among young women athletes.
None of them took a stand to protect the female collegiate swimmers representing their conferences when respect for the athletes’ dignity in the locker room and hard-earned opportunity for success were on the line. Members of Congress have witnessed the injustice and heard their testimonies.
Even House Democrats have soured on the NCAA. All voted against the House rule to pave the way for a floor vote on the SCORE Act. Hats off to powerful Rules Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Republican, for pointing out the hypocrisy of Democrats who “don’t know what a woman is” but claim they are standing for female athletes by objecting to the SCORE Act’s NCAA “wish list.”
The moral chaos in college sports goes deeper than athlete name, image and likeness deals. It will not be fixed by the SCORE Act, or its likeness.
If the NCAA and power conferences haven’t faced their liability on Capitol Hill after spending millions of dollars on a failed attempt to get a major bill across the finish line, they would do well to reevaluate things at their gathering this week in Washington. The American people expect accountability in college sports, and thousands of college-bound female athletes who continue to face transgender-identifying males in their sports do too.
So, welcome to Washington, Mr. Baker and the NCAA! Female athletes and their supporters are coming to town to take a stand for women’s sports for women only at the Supreme Court. After years of protesting your convention for discriminating against female athletes, we invite you to join us this year to prove that you care about keeping men out of women’s sports.
• Doreen Denny is senior adviser for Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization. On X: @CWforA.
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