A federal bill in Congress aimed at establishing nationwide collegiate eligibility rules and addressing Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals may unintentionally undermine existing state laws that protect women's sports, according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
The Protect College Sports Act, introduced by sponsors including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is intended to set general eligibility guidelines for college athletes and regulate NIL compensation. However, ADF, a legal organization that has litigated cases defending sex-based sports classifications, argues the bill's language is ambiguous and could be exploited to invalidate the laws of 27 states that prohibit biological males from competing on women's sports teams.
"The Protect College Sports Act... limits the ability of states to address eligibility," ADF CEO Kristen Waggoner stated in an opinion piece for Fox News. "Yet many of the state sports laws say that sex-based classifications implicate eligibility and declare men ineligible for women's teams. A hostile administration or an activist judge could twist the bill's language to argue that every state law that keeps men out of women’s sports is unenforceable."
ADF highlights that while state laws aim to ensure equal opportunity for girls and women in sports, the federal bill's broad language could preempt these protections. This concern stems from past legal battles where female athletes were displaced by competitors who were assigned male at birth. ADF cited a case in West Virginia where one male competitor allegedly displaced over 470 girls more than 1,400 times, including winning a state championship.
The organization has proposed amendments to the Protect College Sports Act to clarify that it does not preempt state laws safeguarding women's sports and to ensure Title IX protections remain intact. ADF asserts that these protections for female athletes are not in conflict with regulating NIL deals and athlete transfers.
"The bill’s main purpose is to fix the money and chaos in the men’s games, especially football, where the dollars are," Waggoner wrote. "Whether the fix endangers girls is not the highest priority. Once again, when men’s and women’s interests share a page, the women’s side absorbs the risk."
ADF argues that precise language is crucial in legislation, especially when legal challenges are anticipated. The organization's concerns are echoed by some Republican senators who have filed amendments seeking to prevent the bill from overriding state women's sports laws. ADF stated that their proposed fix would ensure that state laws keeping men out of women's sports are not preempted and that Title IX remains unaffected, while still allowing for athlete compensation to be addressed.
The group is urging Congress to refine the bill's language to unambiguously protect existing state laws and Title IX, preventing what they describe as a potential unraveling of efforts to defend biological truth in sports and costly future litigation.