NCAA president downplays impact of men competing in women’s sports: ‘Less than 10 athletes’
NCAA president Charlie Baker was previously reluctant to definitively answer a question asking whether biological men have an inherent advantage in women’s sports.
Baker acknowledged that transgender competition is an ‘enormously controversial and challenging issue’ but simplified the defense of his view to federal courts’ recent decisions on the issue.
NCAA president Charlie Baker recently made an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show to discuss transgender athletes’ participation in women’s sports at the collegiate level. In the wake of multiple controversies surrounding the issue across multiple sports, Baker made several comments emphasizing his view that the issue is a smaller problem than many people believe.
“There are 510,000 college athletes playing in the NCAA, there are less than 10 transgender athletes, so it’s a small community to begin with,” he said, according to Fox News.
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During the interview, Baker reiterated his support for rules that allow biological men to compete against women, defending his view on the grounds that federal courts have allowed it.
“I would love to work with people in Washington to create a federal standard around this issue, because right now we don’t have one, and it’s a problem,” Baker said. “And I accept that it’s an enormously controversial and challenging issue, but right now if you look at the way these issues are getting decided in court, courts are deciding in favor of participation. So, we are abiding by the way they’re deciding this.”
McAfee, who personally conducted Baker’s interview, previously has emphasized the physical differences between men and women and called for corresponding distinctions to be made in competitive sport.
“We’re not talking about souls, we’re talking about physical bodies, but at those high levels of competition, there is a clear advantage,” McAfee said. “There always has been, and I assume there always will be, and I hope we get to a point that we can all agree on this. I think we all feel the same way about this.”
As previously reported by Campus Reform, Baker also made a recent appearance at a Congressional hearing to testify about NCAA policies surrounding transgender athletes. At one point during the hearing, Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) asked Baker whether he agreed that biological men had an inherent physical advantage when competing in women’s sports. Baker’s answer was largely non-commital.
“There’s not a lot of research on it, but it’s certainly debatable,” Baker said. He later backtracked and said he agreed with Kennedy based on how the senator had “defined” the question.
Campus Reform has reached out to Baker for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.