Share

NCAA calls out NC for bigotry — pulls championships

The National Collegiate Athletic Association has chosen to relocate the championship games to be played as part of the 2016 to 2017 season from North Carolina due to the state’s controversial bathroom law, known as House Bill 2, the association announced Monday. Earlier this year, the National Basketball Association said it would move its All-Star Game from Charlotte in protest.

Advertisement

The ACC has released a statement in support of the NCAA’s decision, saying it will consider pulling ACC Championships from the state because of the league’s “longstanding commitment to quality, diversity and inclusion”.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the governor of North Carolina, who has defended the law in the face of legal challenges, had a comment about the NCAA’s decision.

The NCAA said it will relocate the men’s basketball first- and second-round games that were scheduled for March 17 and 19 in Greensboro. The move is in response to the state’s transgender bathroom law, or HB2, an act passed in March in North Carolina, which dictates that individuals are only allowed to go into the bathroom of the gender on their birth certificate.

HB2, or the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, is considered the most anti-LGBT legislation in the country because it eliminates anti-discrimination protections for gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people.

A spokesman for Attorney General Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate for North Carolina Governor, released a statement about the NCAA’s decision to move tournaments.

New locations for the championship events are expected soon.

2016 Division I Women’s Soccer Championship, College Cup (Cary), Dec. 2 and 4.

2016 Division III Men’s and Women’s Soccer Championships (Greensboro), Dec. 2 and 3.

2017 Division III Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships (Cary), May 22-27.

North Carolina isn’t the only state losing NCAA events.

2017 Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championship (Cary), May 26 and 28.

“As representatives of all three divisions, the Board of Governors must advance college sports through policies that resolve core issues affecting student-athletes and administrators”, G.P. “Bud” Peterson, the Board of Governors chair and Georgia Tech president, said in a statement. “Enough. We need to repeal this law and get our state back on track”.

Advertisement

The NCAA noted the decision was consistent with steps it had taken in the past “to ensure its championship environment is consistent with its values”, pointing to bans regarding states that display the Confederate flag and the use of “hostile and abusive Native American imagery”.

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory