The NCAA has no excuse any more.
The spineless leaders who run it got the cover they desperately needed from President Donald Trump to acknowledge the obvious biological differences between men and women. It was like the Garden of Eden all over again — after smoking crack.
Any organization that can’t define what a woman is shouldn’t be allowed to survive, let alone oversee the future of collegiate athletics.
Male and female he created them, sayeth Trump upon signing an executive order on National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Instead of being cast out of paradise, though, for violating that order, the penalty for the trans terrorists will henceforth be investigation and loss of federal funding as well as heaping portions of mockery, scorn, and — if we should be so lucky — Nancy Mace yelling, “Tranny, tranny, tranny!” until their ears bleed.
Now that we’ve settled where penises do and don’t belong, the NCAA has a chance to salvage a shred of dignity on another front. Soon, its officials will appear before the Senate Commerce Committee to argue for its role in the future governance of college athletics. If the NCAA fails to follow through on protecting female athletes after Trump’s photo op with Riley Gaines and her allies, it will collapse before the committee, now chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).
This isn’t about gender clarity for the NCAA’s leadership. They aren’t having a sudden moral awakening. More likely, they’re barely capable of doing the math on societal relevance and financial survival.
Let’s be honest — that makes far more sense than expecting the same gender ideologues to suddenly see Trump as their Rosetta stone for truth, science, and decency.
Now, back to Cruz. Since the chaotic and unsustainable introduction of “name, image, likeness” funding for college athletes in 2021, the NCAA has struggled to navigate its own future. A group that couldn’t muster the will to keep mentally ill men out of women’s locker rooms was never going to figure out the next phase of college sports without help from leaders like the junior U.S. senator from Texas.
In 2023, Cruz introduced draft legislation to guide the NCAA and its member institutions toward recognizing student athletes as employees of their universities. But moving beyond the draft stage is fraught with land mines.
Title IX remains in jeopardy, no matter what Trump just accomplished, because men’s football and basketball generate significantly more revenue than any women’s sport. Meanwhile, many school presidents and athletic directors warn that losing Olympic men’s sports at the college level is becoming a real possibility — especially for institutions without deep budgetary resources or major donor support.
Hint: That’s most of them.
Without the NCAA’s agreement to protect women’s sports, Cruz and the Commerce Committee might have had an easier job. If the NCAA had refused to cooperate, it would have effectively forfeited its place at the grown-ups’ table. But now, the organization’s leaders can dig in their heels, leveraging their compliance with Trump’s order as a bargaining chip in his favorite game — “let’s make a deal.”
This will be a high-stakes poker match. The NCAA will undoubtedly use Title IX as a defense — whether legitimate or a bluff — to convince the Commerce Committee that paying college athletes is financially unworkable without cutting jobs and eliminating sports programs.
I worked for Cruz, so I know firsthand how seriously he takes his principles and how thoroughly he does his due diligence. He’s a proud girl dad and a dedicated sports fan, making him both knowledgeable about these issues and personally invested. Cruz also just won re-election by defeating a former Baylor college football star — someone he mocked for supporting transgender insanity and the push to replace women with men in sports.
I probably don’t need to suggest this to my former boss — he’s likely already thinking it. But under no circumstances should federal legislation save the NCAA unless it makes clear that the organization isn’t just paying lip service to Trump’s executive order. It must commit to upholding biological reality in sports permanently.
The NCAA should be forced to acknowledge that reality once and for all. Otherwise, it can continue its losing streak in the courts.
Any organization that can’t define what a woman is shouldn’t be allowed to survive, let alone oversee the future of collegiate athletics.
Steve deace, Ncaa, College sports, Transgender athletes, Executive orders, Donald trump, Ted cruz, Senate commerce committee, Biological males in women’s sports, Reality, Nancy mace, Opinion & analysis
