CLEVELAND -- South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley said Saturday that she believes transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in women's sports.

During a news conference a day after her No. 1 Gamecocks beat NC State in the Final Four to advance to the national championship game against Iowa, the legendary coach was asked for her opinion on the issue.

"I'm of the opinion that if you're a woman, you should play," Staley said. "If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports, or vice versa, you should be able to play."

Hours later, Iowa coach Lisa Bluder was asked the same question.

"I understand it's a topic that people are interested in," Bluder said. "But today my focus is on the game tomorrow, my players. It's an important game we have tomorrow, and that's what I want to be here to talk about. But I know it's an important issue for another time."

The debate over whether transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in accordance with their gender identity has grown heated in statehouses, courthouses, sport governing bodies and the court of public opinion over the past four years.

The NCAA first adopted a policy governing transgender athlete participation in 2010, providing a pathway to participation for transgender women and men in accordance with their gender identities. It amended its policy on Jan. 19, 2022 to be sport-specific as determined by each sport's national governing body, international federation or the 2015 Olympic standard.

That policy change came amid controversy surrounding University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender woman who was competing in women's swimming and won a national championship in the 500-yard freestyle.

The NCAA currently requires transgender women wanting to compete in women's sports to submit documentation, including testosterone levels, to the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports. The committee's medical review panel determines eligibility.

For basketball, the NCAA defers to the 2015 Olympic guidance to determine the allowable testosterone threshold, which is under 10 nanomoles per liter. There are no known transgender women competing in Division I NCAA basketball.

Since Idaho passed HB 500 in 2020 -- the first law that restricted transgender girls from being eligible to participate in girls and women's sports -- 23 additional states have enacted similar legislation, including South Carolina and Iowa, which passed laws in 2022. There is no federal legislation regulating transgender athlete eligibility.

How Title IX does or doesn't apply to existing laws and policy is being litigated in multiple states. On March 14, 16 current and former NCAA athletes, led by former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, a cisgender woman, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Atlanta against the NCAA, claiming its policy violates their rights under Title IX.

World Aquatics, the cycling federation (UCI) and World Athletics are among the international federations that have updated their policies to be more restrictive toward transgender women in recent years. All three federations bar transgender women from competing in the women's category if they have undergone testosterone-driven puberty.

Staley recognized the political nature of the question and the potential reaction to her answer.

"So now the barnstormer people are going to flood my timeline and be a distraction to me on one of the biggest days of our game," she said. "And I'm OK with that. I really am."