A member of the NCAA Committee on Infractions, a voluntary group that prescribes sanctions for member schools that violate the association's rules, has resigned over the NCAA's policies regarding the participation of transgender athletes.
William Bock, former general counsel of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, told The Associated Press on Friday that NCAA policies allowing transgender athletes to compete against women are unfair. He submitted a letter of resignation to NCAA President Charlie Baker dated February 9.
“A lot of people haven't known how to respond to the smokescreen that says you can just suppress testosterone and that will level the playing field,” Bock said. “And the policies that the NCAA and other sports organizations have come up with, which supposedly promote inclusion, actually discriminate.”
The NCAA declined to comment on Bock's resignation, which was first reported by the Washington Examiner.
The NCAA became part of a politically divisive debate when Penn swimmer Lia Thomas became the first transgender woman to win a national title in 2022. Critics contend transgender athletes have an advantage over cisgender women in competition athletics, although in general there is still a lack of exhaustive research on the elite. athletics and virtually nonexistent when it comes to determining whether a college transgender woman has a clear advantage over her opponents or her cisgender teammates.
About two dozen states have passed laws banning transgender athletes from participating in women's school sports.
The NCAA has had a policy for the participation of transgender athletes since 2010, which required one year of testosterone suppression treatment and documented testosterone levels submitted before championship competitions. In 2022, the NCAA revised its policies on the participation of transgender athletes to try to align with national sports governing bodies, following the lead of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
The three-phase implementation of the policy included a continuation of the 2010 policy, which required transgender women to receive hormone replacement therapy for at least a year, in addition to submitting a hormone level test before the start of the season. regular and championship. events.
The third phase adds standards from national and international sports governing bodies to NCAA policy and, after a delay, is scheduled to be implemented for the 2024-25 school year.
Baker and the NCAA, which includes more than 1,100 schools and 500,000 athletes, have tried to avoid being part of the fight for transgender rights without abandoning the mission of being inclusive. During his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, Baker signed a bill known as the transgender bill of rights in 2016.
Bock had served as a public member of the IOC, which is primarily made up of college sports administrators and university leaders, since 2016. He said in his letter to Baker that he would resign with a year and a half left in his third term.
