KS, MO bills banning trans students from women’s sports could cost NCAA champ sites

The NCAA signaled Monday it won’t hold championship events in states with prohibitions on transgender athletes — measures that are pending in both Kansas and Missouri.

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat and proponent of LGBTQ rights, will likely veto legislation passed last week by the state House and Senate. But the stance by the NCAA, which governs college sports, raises the stakes in any future attempt by the Republican-controlled Legislature to override Kelly’s veto.

“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,” the NCAA board of governors said in a statement.

The NCAA said it will “closely monitor these situations” when deciding whether championships can be held “in ways that are welcoming and respectful of all participants.”

In Kansas, Wichita is set to host the first and second rounds of the 2025 Division I men’s basketball championship and 2024 NCAA Division II wrestling national championships. Wichita will also host the regional rounds in the 2022 NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament.

“The bigotry of the #ksleg comes at a tremendous cost to some of our most vulnerable students and our economy,” Rep. Brett Parker, an Overland Park Democrat, said on Twitter after the release of the NCAA statement.

In Missouri, legislation to require students to play on sports teams based on their sex at birth passed a second committee in the House of Representatives last week. It could be scheduled for floor debate any time.

Kansas City’s T-Mobile Center (formerly Sprint Center) is set to host several NCAA championship events over the next three years, including the 2023 Division I men’s basketball regional finals, the 2024 Division I wrestling championship and the 2025 Division I volleyball championship.

Additionally, Joplin will play host to Division II men’s and women’s cross country championships between 2022-2025, with the finals to be held there in 2023. The 2023 Division II women’s basketball Elite Eight will take place in St. Joseph and the 2025 Division I men’s and women’s cross country championships will be held in Columbia.

Republicans in Kansas, Missouri and a raft of other states have pursued bills this year that would ban or severely restrict participation in student sports by transgender athletes.

The South Dakota Legislature passed a similar sports restriction last month, but it was vetoed by the state’s Republican governor. The Arkansas General Assembly passed a sports ban, which was signed into law, and also overrode the GOP governor’s veto of an additional bill that bans hormone therapy and other treatments for people under the age of 18.

The Kansas proposal would ban transgender people from K-12 girls’ sports and college women’s sports.

“This bill recognizes the fundamental differences between men and women in competitive sports. It uses the only fair metric, biology, as the means to organize the divisions in our sports,” Rep. Paul Waggoner, a Hutchinson Republican, said in a statement explaining his support of the bill.

In a statement Monday, Kelly said she would “support bills that bring jobs to Kansas and oppose bills that drive businesses away.”

“We didn’t bring in a record amount of capital investment to Kansas by antagonizing businesses,” the governor said.

The House and Senate approved the measure late last week after wrenching debates on Thursday and Friday. If Kelly vetoes the bill, proponents will have difficulty overturning her decision. While the Senate’s 26-to-11 vote was one short of the 27 necessary to override a veto, the House margin of 76 to 43 was well short of the 84 votes needed.

The Missouri resolution, sponsored by Rep. Chuck Basye, a Rocheport Republican, is unique in proposing a constitutional amendment, meaning if approved by both chambers it would go to the voters. Opponents have raised concerns the measure would subject transgender children to a public campaign and debate on the issue.

The Missouri State High School Activities Association currently allows transgender boys undergoing testosterone treatment to compete on boys’ teams, and transgender girls to compete on girls’ teams after documenting one year of treatments that suppress testosterone.

The bill would ban transgender girls from playing on girls’ teams entirely. It would only allow transgender boys to play on “coed” or “mixed” teams if they have begun transitioning, or to play on boys’ teams if the school does not offer an equivalent girls’ team.

Basye has called the matter “an issue of fairness” to keep cisgender girls from competing against athletes with biologically male physical traits.

Chambers of Commerce in both the Kansas City and St. Louis areas oppose the measures.

The Star’s Blair Kerkhoff and The Eagle’s Taylor Eldridge contributed reporting