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NCAA Relocates Seven Championships From State Of North Carolina Over House Bill 2
The NCAA has pulled the seven championships scheduled for the state of North Carolina during this academic year, including NCAA men’s basketball tournament games in Greensboro, "because of House Bill 2," according to a front-page piece by Andrew Carter of the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER. The NCAA argued that the controversial bill "would preclude North Carolina cities from guaranteeing an 'inclusive atmosphere' for all." ACC Commissioner John Swofford states that the league "would not make decisions about ACC championships until discussing HB2 at previously scheduled meetings this week." That includes the league's football championship game, which is slated to be played in Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium in December for the seventh straight year. Swofford did say that he "personally believed it was time for the law to be repealed." The move comes two months after the NBA pulled its All-Star Game from Charlotte due to HB2. The NCAA last night "acknowledged that other states have laws that are in some ways similar to HB2." However, the organization argued that “the dynamic in North Carolina is different from that of other states because of at least four specific factors" ( <a href="http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/article101457472.html" target="_blank">Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 9/13</a> ). NCAA President Mark Emmert this morning called the move to pull the events from the state a “proverbial no-brainer” for university presidents. He said, “We had a process by which all the individual bidders were able to express their views of what they could do around this. But in the end, the board realized that with this law in place, they simply can’t be successful there.” More Emmert: "There was hope that this could be resolved during the summer, during the legislative session, or perhaps this fall through the court system. None of those things came to pass. In order to have time to relocate those events and move them to a place where our students were still going to get a very high-quality experience, the board had to make a decision right away” ( “CBS This Morning,” 9/13 ).
