Idaho, NCAA Clash Over Laws Banning Transgender Athletes

The NCAA has spoken up this week about preventing discrimination in the world of collegiate sports and the impact on the State of Idaho is significant. If you didn't know this, Idaho recently passed a bill that bans transgender student athletes from competing in sports.

Now, the NCAA is saying that championships will ONLY be held in locations free of discrimination. In other words, in the eyes of the NCAA, anti-transgender laws passed here in Idaho make the Gem State NOT free of discrimination.

To give you some insight, a part of the statement released by the NCAA said:

The NCAA Board of Governors firmly and unequivocally supports the opportunity for transgender student-athletes to compete in college sports. This commitment is grounded in our values of inclusion and fair competition.

When determining where championships are held, NCAA policy directs that only locations where hosts can commit to providing an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination should be selected.

At this point, we're still waiting to see how this will impact Idaho and particularly, Boise State, arguably the state's most will known NCAA sanctioned team. Several years ago, Nampa hosted the NCAA Track and Field Indoor Championships-- with the current law in place and statement from the NCAA, it would be safe to assume that THAT would not happen again. Another example would be March Madness--given that the first two rounds have been hosted here in Boise before and are a part of the "championship" process--it is probably safe to assume we won't be seeing that back in Boise as well.

With so much of this, including the "transgender ban" being so new, we'll continue to keep tabs on what this means for the State of Idaho.

You can read the entire NCAA statement, HERE.