'Sanctioned cheating:' Indy sports attorney resigns from NCAA over trans athlete rules

Sports attorney William Bock says NCAA rules which allow transgender athletes to compete against women are not only unfair, but they are what he calls "sanctioned cheating," which has prompted him to quit his voluntary post with the organization.

Bock submitted a letter of resignation from his position as a member of the Division I Committee on Infractions to NCAA president Charlie Baker last month. He had served on the committee, which hears cases involving the potential violation of NCAA rules, since 2016 and had another 18 months left on the committee which is appointed by the board of directors.

"The NCAA’s so-called, 'Transgender Student-Athlete Participation Policy' is nothing less than institutionalized discrimination which results in sanctioned cheating," Bock wrote in his resignation letter to Baker, which he provided to IndyStar. "This poorly thought-out policy deprives women of competitive opportunities and subjects them to physical, mental, and emotional harm, evoking memories of the NCAA’s strident, misguided, opposition to Title IX throughout the 1970s."

In a statement to IndyStar, the NCAA responded to Bock's resignation saying, "The NCAA is a membership organization with member schools and conferences in all 50 states. The hosts of all of our championships — no matter what state they are in — are required to provide an environment that is safe, healthy and free of discrimination and respects the dignity of all persons."

IndyStar sat down with Bock, who is a partner with Kroger, Gardis & Regas in Indianapolis, to talk about his resignation from the NCAA and the reasons behind it.

Why he resigned, in his words

Bock has spent much of his law career fighting against illegal drug use in sports and for fairness on the playing field. As former general counsel for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, he led the investigation into Lance Armstrong and other members of the United States Postal Service Cycling Team's use of performance enhancing drugs.

Bock was also the lead attorney for the agency when it uncovered anti-doping rule violations by the coach and physician for the Nike Oregon Project, the best-known distance running training group, which was housed on the campus of Nike, Inc. in Beaverton, Ore.

"So much of my career in sport and the law has focused on the issue of a level playing field, competitive fairness," Bock said. "So, I kind of came to this issue with that background. We always have to rely at USADA on the best scientific experts related to steroid use, and so (I) have an understanding of how testosterone affects the development of the human body.

"In 2021, 2022, when this issue kind of came to the forefront and, really, it was propelled by Lia Thomas seeking eligibility, seeking to compete in the NCAA Women's Swimming Championships, that caused me to really focus on the issue. From that point forward, I had an expectation that the NCAA would see the light and understand the science, which I felt that I did.

"And they didn't move on the issue, so I took the opportunity while I was on the committee to just try to feel people out about how they felt about the current state of the rules and males. And, when I speak of male, I'm just talking about sex, just talking about the biological traits of males competing in the female category. I found pretty uniform agreement that it wasn't fair and, in some cases, it could be dangerous in terms of athlete safety.

"Since the north star of any sports organization needs to be competitive fairness, that taught me that there was something that was going on that was keeping that issue, which so many people agree is unfair to women, from really being addressed in a way that we address other issues, like doping. I just realized that I couldn't remain in a sport integrity role at the NCAA because they were failing on the fundamental No. 1 duty of an integrity organization, which is to protect competitive fairness through its rules."

NCAA rules on trans athletes

"The NCAA claims that it's following Olympic sports and applies the rules of each of the Olympic sports organizations in their particular sport. They're not accurately depicting what they do. They kind of pick and choose and it's a bit of a hodgepodge, but they're clearly not following the rules," said Bock.

"In some cases, they're following the rules of the international federation. In some cases, they're following the rules of the national governing body. And in some cases, in disciplines within the same basic category, whether it be swimming or track and field, they appear to be following different rules. And they're not also following all the other procedures that international federations look into.

"For instance, an example is USA Swimming's rules require someone to be suppressing testosterone for three years if they want to try to compete in the women's category. And then there's additional medical review that goes with that. The NCAA tells the public that they're following USA Swimming's rules, but in fact, they don't have a three-year look-back period. And I don't believe that they have the capacity of actually looking at the performance issues person by person."

According to the NCAA, its transgender student-athlete participation policy aligns with the international Olympic movement policy.

Currently, "participation in NCAA sports requires transgender athletes to provide (detailed) documentation and meet the sport standard for documented testosterone levels at three points in time — prior to any competition during the regular season, prior to the first competition in an NCAA championship event and prior to any competition in the non-championship segment," the organization says.

Beginning in August, "participation in NCAA sports (will require) transgender student-athletes to provide documentation no less than twice annually (and at least once within four weeks of competition in NCAA championships) that meets the sport-specific standard (which may include testosterone levels, mitigation timelines and other aspects of sport-governing body policies) as reviewed and approved by the NCAA's Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports."

'Unfortunately, sport has a dark side'

Bock says "there was a conspiracy of silence around doping and cycling and it was enforced pretty viciously and pretty vigorously by those people that were engaging or felt it necessary to kind of support those practices."

"I've been involved in a number of pieces of litigation related to the transgender movement and women's sports, and what I've seen are women being silenced and women being threatened, threatened at their universities, told that they will be ostracized. And if they speak the truth about their experiences in locker rooms when they're confronted with full male genitalia, which has happened at NCAA championships and they are taken unaware, which is obviously completely unfair, I would argue a violation of their Title IX rights and abusive.

"Unfortunately, sport has a dark side, but it's important for organizations that run sport to realize that athletes are vulnerable, and their No. 1 goal should be to protect them."

Should people assigned male at birth ever be allowed to compete in women's sports?

"I don't think they should. I think they simply need to protect the women's category and make it only for women," said Bock. "The women's category, ironically, was created for inclusion. And we are now taking away the ability of women to perform in that category and allowing men to compete in it. Women cannot have a fair opportunity to show their natural abilities if they compete against men because of these biological differences. There's some misconceptions that one can just make a woman out of a man by reducing the amount of testosterone that they're able to produce, and that's just not scientifically accurate.

"Everybody should be able to compete, whether you're trans or not. Sport is important. But you shouldn't be able to make a choice to simply compete in another category, because that makes the category meaningless. And I know that trans individuals that want to compete in the women's category don't think that they're doing that, but they are. They're making that choice. And I understand that they're following the rules, but the rules aren't sufficient to protect women and fair competition."

What about transgender men competing in men's sports?

"Well, they don't have the inherent advantages that men have in terms of biology, which almost across the board in every area give men advantage, regardless of the sport skill or the muscle group or whatever you want to look at," said Bock. "So, they aren't going to have a biological advantage from the start. They're typically given the opportunity to apply for a therapeutic use exemption if they want to use testosterone, but they still have to use it only within certain parameters. And it has to be medically prescribed as well.

"What can't happen, but there's concern about whether it happens, is an individual that is female and using testosterone because they want to transition and live as a male. If they attempt to continue to compete in the women's category ... if an organization doesn't have a very effective drug testing program, one doesn't know whether they've started their hormonal transition, and you're kind of just leaving it up to the athlete.

"And I don't want to sound harsh but having spent 14 years as general counsel for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, that's just not what we do with athletes. We regard competition as too important and too sacred to simply just leave it up to athletes to police themselves. We don't do it in that area. We shouldn't do it in any areas. And there's probably insufficient testing going on as well at the NCAA level."

What women's sports organizations say

IndyStar reached out to two major women's sports organizations to get their views on transgender women in sports.

The Women's Sports Policy Working Group, which is backed by tennis legend Martina Navratilova, responded to IndyStar via email in support of Bock's position, citing several studies, including one based on data from the U.S. military.

"(That study has) confirmed that males who identify as transgender retain their male sex-linked advantages even after a year on gender-affirming hormones. This is especially the case for sports and events that are not endurance-based. Because of these retained advantages, USA Powerlifting, World Rugby, and World Athletics (track and field) have recently concluded that it isn’t possible to fairly and safely include males who identify as transgender in women’s competition," Title IX pioneer Donna A. Lopiano, wrote in an e-mail to IndyStar. "The NCAA is ignoring this data.

"(Our group) supports the inclusion of transgender women in women's sports events as long as there is no head-to-head competition and separate scoring as an accommodation and no diminution of opportunities, scholarships, treatment and benefits under Title IX which requires treatment based on biological sex."

The Women's Sports Foundation did not respond to IndyStar's interview requests, but says on its website that its primary mission "is to advocate for inclusion of all girls and women."

In April, it said categorical bans of transgender athletes are impermissible under Title IX. "These broad bans, which now exist across 21 states, limit opportunities and harm the development of both cisgender and transgender girls and women."

The sports foundation went on to say, "we believe it to be imperative that any policy governing transgender athlete participation should encourage a pathway to inclusion, and any restrictions should be contingent on the level of competition and play. At the youth level, (we) believe that sports participation policies should focus on the ability for youth to play and compete consistent with their gender identity."

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Indy sports attorney resigns from NCAA over transgender athlete rules