College athletes demand NCAA withdraw rules for trans player in women’s sports

Inside the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center, protestors wore buttons reading "Equality is not a game" and shirts stating "Women’s sports are for women" and "Take back Title IX," per ESPN. The protest was organized by the Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition and the Independent Women’s Forum.

Independent Women's Forum vice president Victoria Coley told the outlet, "This is just based on fairness, returning the integrity of women's sports and making sure that the NCAA does what's right."

Former University of Nevada women’s volleyball co-captain and Independent Women’s Forum Ambassador Sia Liilii said she was there to "demand that the NCAA change their policies that discriminate on women on the basis of sex so that none of the female athletes that are up and coming have to go through the turmoil, the emotional distress, and just chaos that my team went through this year as well as other members of the Mountain West Conference." The University of Nevada’s volleyball team and others in the conference forfeited games against San Jose State University in protest of trans-identified male player Blaire Fleming.

In 2010, the NCAA adopted a policy regarding transgender athlete participation, which allowed athletes to compete in categories that did not match their birth sex. The NCAA changed its policy to be on a sport-by-sport basis in 2022, which mirrored steps taken by both the United States Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee. The policy change came as the NCAA was facing increased backlash over trans-identified male swimmer Lia Thomas.

NCAA president Charlie Baker told reporters on Tuesday, "We do have a situation where there is no clarity on this from a legal point of view. You have federal judges ruling on individual cases. You have 26, 27 states with one set of rules [and] a bunch of other states with a whole other set of rules. I do think we would welcome some clarity somewhere on this so everyone has a general understanding about what the rules of the game are." He said that there are fewer than 10 transgender athletes of the around 510,000 athletes competing in the NCAA.

On Tuesday, the House passed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025 in a 218 to 206 vote. All but two Democrats voted against the bill, which prohibits schools that receive federal funding from allowing a biological male to participate in athletic programs or activities designated for women and girls. The bill now goes to the Republican-controlled Senate for consideration.

Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines in March launched a lawsuit against the NCAA, which has since been joined by 18 additional athletes, alleging that the NCAA’s transgender athlete policy violates Title IX.