EXCLUSIVE — A member of the NCAA Committee on Infractions resigned from his position over disagreements with the organization’s policy for transgender student-athletes, according to a letter obtained by the Washington Examiner.
William Bock III, the former general counsel for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, submitted his letter of resignation to NCAA President Charlie Baker on Friday, citing the college sports organization’s policy to allow transgender men to compete in women’s sports as a primary reason for his departure. Bock has served as a committee member since 2016 and is stepping down from his role more than a year before his current term is set to expire in August 2025.
“Although I may not have agreed with the wisdom of every rule in the NCAA rulebook, I believed the intent behind the NCAA’s rules was competitive fairness and protection of equal opportunities for student-athletes,” Bock wrote. “This conviction has changed as I have watched the NCAA double down on regressive policies which discriminate against female student-athletes.”
Bock cited the NCAA’s three-phase participation policy, which it began implementing in January 2022, that would allow transgender student-athletes to play in their desired sports so long as they met certain requirements. Among those requirements is documentation that proves testosterone levels were below the maximum allowable levels for any given sport.
However, Bock rejected that policy, arguing much of the biological development that occurs before and around the time of puberty puts biological men at an advantage even if they are required to suppress testosterone levels before competition.
“There’s a lot of biological development that starts at birth that allows you to maximize testosterone, and those changes that you get through development — they don’t go away,” Bock said. “And you’re going to reduce performance by a small amount if you reduce testosterone levels, but you’re never going to bridge the gap between men and women. And so it’s a ruse to say that testosterone suppression, it’s a level playing field, so it’s not true.”
Bock also pointed to his 14-year stint as the general counsel for the Anti-Doping Agency, during which he served as an attorney on high-profile cases, including a key role in investigating bicyclist Lance Armstrong and his use of performance-enhancing drugs. Through this role, Bock said he specialized in biology and how testosterone-based enhancements could slant competition.
Bock said he first opposed the policies that were being discussed at the NCAA shortly after Lia Thomas became the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA Division I national championship. Thomas previously competed on the male team before transitioning to identify as female and competing on the women’s team in 2022.
Thomas’s participation ignited a nationwide debate about transgender student-athletes, leading to the new NCAA guidelines.
Bock said he consulted with experts in sports physiology and developmental biology “to really try to make sure that I really understood the science” but ultimately came out against the policy altogether, which later led to his decision to step down from the NCAA Infractions Committee, which deals with integrity in sports.
“If I’m there in a sport integrity role when there’s massive, essentially authorized, cheating taking place and dramatically harming women — it’s just a contradiction,” he said. “I just felt like I couldn’t seem to do that any longer and needed to resign with the hope that maybe [it] will cause other people to look at the issue more closely.”
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It’s not entirely clear if Bock’s resignation will prompt any movement, as the former general counsel said he hasn’t heard a response from the NCAA since submitting the letter. The NCAA has not yet responded to a request for comment by the Washington Examiner.
“I’ve gotten no response from anybody,” he said. “Which I think probably says a lot about the fear that’s driving silence at academic institutions on this issue.”
