NAIA enacts ban on transgender athletes

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics announced a policy Monday that all but bans transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports at its 241 mostly small colleges across the country.

The NAIA Council of Presidents approved the policy in a 20-0 vote at its annual convention in Kansas City, Missouri. The NAIA, which oversees some 83,000 athletes competing in more than 25 sports, is the first college sports organization to take such a step.

According to the transgender participation policy, which goes into effect in August, all athletes may participate in NAIA-sponsored male sports but only athletes whose biological sex assigned at birth is female and have not begun hormone therapy will be allowed participate in women’s sports.

A student who has begun hormone therapy may participate in activities such as workouts, practices and team activities, but not in intercollegiate competition.

There is no known number of transgender athletes at the high school and college levels, though it is believed to be small.

About 190 of the 241 NAIA schools are private, and about 125 of those have religious affiliations of varying degrees.

South Carolina’s victory over Caitlin Clark and Iowa in Sunday’s women’s NCAA championship game had a preliminary audience average of 18.7 million on ABC and ESPN. The only sporting events in the U.S. to draw a bigger TV audience since 2019 have been football, the World Cup and the Olympics. It’s the mostwatched basketball game since 2019, when the men’s NCAA title game between Virginia and Texas Tech averaged 19.6 million on CBS.

NBA: Hawks All-Star G Trae Young was cleared to return to practice six weeks after having surgery for a torn ligament in his left pinkie surgery. The Hawks have gone 12-10 since his injury entering Tuesday’s home game against the Heat and held the final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference.