Leaders of the National Collegiate Athletic Association are throwing their economic weight and influence behind transgender athletes ability to participate in college sports by threatening to pull lucrative championship events from states with discriminatory laws. The NCAA Board of Governors released a statement Monday reiterating that it will select championship sites that are “safe, healthy and free of discrimination,” following the passage of four laws, and dozens more bills under consideration, that bar transgender women from competing against cisgender women in K-12 and intercollegiate sports. The board’s statement echoed a position and policy created nearly five years ago, when the association moved championship events from North Carolina after state lawmakers approved legislation that barred transgender people from using public bathrooms associated with the gender with which they identity.