Baylor Women's Basketball Team Accepts Invite to Visit Donald Trump, White House

The Baylor women's basketball team announced that it will visit President Donald Trump at the White House fresh off their 2019 NCAA Division I national championship (h/t Tom Schad of USA Today). 

Baylor head coach Kim Mulkey, who led the Lady Bears to national titles in 2005 and 2012, previously told Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press that it is "an honor to go to the White House."

"I've been every time for every president. It's not a political issue for me. It's an honor to go to the White House. I want everyone to say they went to the White House. Not many people can say that. I hope Virginia men go and I can meet Tony Bennett. We were honored when President Bush was in the office. We were honored when Barack Obama was in the office. We'd be honored if Donald Trump invited us. With politics aside, We should go to say we went to the White House."

Numerous sports teams have either declined or not received White House invitations under Trump. Of note, the Golden State Warriors were uninvited after two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry said he would not attend following the team's 2017 NBA Finals win, and the South Carolina women's basketball team declined an invite after their 2017 NCAA championship victory.

Baylor is the first basketball team and the first women's championship team to visit the White House as a solo honoree, per Schad.

The Minnesota Lynx and the Seattle Storm, who won the 2017 and 2018 WNBA championships, respectively, did not receive invitations. 

Schad also said it is "unclear" whether Notre Dame—last year's NCAA women's basketball champion and this year's runner-up—got an invite.

Per Schad, "Female athletes have previously visited the White House under Trump, but only in settings where they were honored alongside male athletes—a ceremony for U.S. Olympians and Paralympians in 2018 and a group event for NCAA champions in 2017."

Trump has welcomed other champion sports teams to the White House, including the Clemson football team, the Boston Red Sox and the Washington Capitals.

However, various athletes have not joined their teams. Most recently, goalie Braden Holtby and forward Brett Connolly did not visit with their Caps teammates, per Kevin Allen of USA Today.

Holtby told reporters that he had "to stay true to my values," and Connolly declined because ex-teammate Devante Smith-Pelly did not want to go.

Other athletes have not attended before the Trump administration, per Thomas Neumann of ESPN. Of note, Steelers linebacker James Harrison missed the 2006 and 2009 ceremonies, and Baltimore Ravens center Matt Birk declined to visit President Barack Obama, citing a disagreement over his support of Planned Parenthood.

Per Neumann, President Ronald Reagan started the tradition of routinely inviting championship teams to the White House in the 1980s, though the practice was intermittently carried out by various presidents before his administration began in 1981.