NCAA Bars Trans Athletes as Federal Officials Launch Investigation of San José State

Updated 4:10 p.m. Thursday

Hours after federal education officials on Thursday announced an investigation into San José State University for alleged Title IX violations, the NCAA said it would ban transgender students from participating in women’s sports in line with a new executive order from President Trump.

SJSU has been at the center of a nationwide debate since a women’s volleyball player and others sued last year, seeking to bar a player they said was transgender. The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will look into whether the school discriminated against female athletes and jeopardized their right to equal opportunity and fair play, according to a press release.

“San José State University is committed to ensuring that all of our students, including our student-athletes, are treated fairly, free from discrimination, and afforded the rights and protections granted under federal and state law, including privacy rights,” President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said in a statement on Thursday.

“Our focus remains on our values including fostering an environment that cultivates compassion, where every student has the opportunity to thrive,” Teniente-Matson said.

The NCAA, which has also faced public criticism for allowing transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams, announced Thursday afternoon that it is changing its participation policy to align with the federal regulations established by Trump. Under the association’s new policy, student-athletes who are assigned male at birth will be prohibited from competing on a women’s team regardless of gender identity, although the rule also applies to cisgender female athletes who are taking testosterone treatments.

The policy changes do not affect NCAA competitive men’s sports, and all students will still be permitted to practice on a team consistent with their gender identity.

“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,” Charlie Baker, NCAA president, said in a statement on Wednesday. “To that end, President Trump’s order provides a clear, national standard.”

Tom Temprano, managing director of the nonprofit Equality California, said the NCAA’s decision is deeply disappointing and further marginalizes vulnerable students who actually make up a very small percentage of student-athletes. Less than 0.002% of NCAA athletes are transgender, he said.

“This is not about aligning with federal policy,” Temprano said. “Trump does not get to dictate from on high what the laws are in the United States of America. Congress was the one that enacted Title IX to outlaw sex discrimination in schools for all students.”

Institutions need to band together to resist the Trump administration instead of following its orders blindly, Temprano said, adding that now is the time for schools to reaffirm their commitment to protecting their transgender athletes and students.

Under the executive order, the latest in a series of directives targeting transgender people and what the president has labeled “Gender Ideology Extremism,” federal agencies are directed to withhold funding from institutions that allow transgender students to participate in sports teams that do not align with their biological sex. According to the Trump administration, the order protects female students from the biological athletic advantages associated with the male sex.

There’s no evidence that transgender women who medically transition have any universal athletic advantages over their cisgender counterparts.

By using the Department of Education to enforce the policy, the Trump administration is changing the interpretation of Title IX, a 1972 civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. Last month, a federal judge in Kentucky rejected a Biden administration rule that used Title IX to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, striking down expanded protections for LGBTQ students and opening the door for Trump’s move.

“Last week, the U.S. Department of Education notified K-12 schools and higher education institutions of a return to enforcing Title IX protections on the basis of biological sex,” reads the press release announcing the investigation. “Yesterday’s Executive Order ensures that federally funded institutions of higher education prioritize fairness and safety in women’s sports.”

The University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association are also facing separate investigations by the department for similar Title IX allegations.

“The previous administration trampled the rights of American women and girls — and ignored the indignities to which they were subjected in bathrooms and locker rooms,” Craig Trainor, the acting assistant secretary for civil rights, said in the press release, echoing the anti-trans rhetoric that Trump and other Republicans have used to target transgender women.

Shiwali Patel, senior director of safe and inclusive schools at the National Women’s Law Center, told KQED that courts have affirmed Title IX protections extend to transgender students in multiple contexts, including sports and bathrooms.

“Utilizing the Title IX enforcement process as a way to engage in discrimination against trans women and girls, to essentially weaponize this critical civil rights law and turn it on its head, is such a gross abuse of power,” Patel said.

The controversy surrounding SJSU women’s volleyball began last fall when some schools, including the University of Wyoming and Boise State University, refused to play against the Spartans in an apparent protest against NCAA policies allowing transgender women to compete in women’s sports. Several members of the team and others in the Mountain West Conference, including Spartans co-captain Brooke Slusser, filed a lawsuit against SJSU and the conference in November and asked that the courts issue an emergency injunction barring the athlete from playing.

As the SJSU player who was targeted by the lawsuit has never spoken publicly about her gender identity, KQED is not identifying her.

The immediate injunction request was rejected by both U.S. District Judge S. Kato Crews and the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on the grounds of sex discrimination and lack of evidence that the player’s participation would cause irreparable harm. The larger lawsuit is still ongoing.

Another lawsuit was also filed earlier that year against the NCAA by former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, accusing the athletics association of discriminating against cisgender women by allowing a transgender athlete from the University of Pennsylvania to compete in the national championships. Slusser is also a plaintiff in that suit.

KQED’s Natalia Navarro contributed to this report.