The Atlantic Coast Conference has followed the NCAA’s lead, announcing Wednesday the removal of 10 neutral-site league championship events for 2016-17 from the state of North Carolina.
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The Atlantic Coast Conference, which has its football championship scheduled for December in Charlotte, could be next to act.
That includes football, baseball, golf, women’s basketball, women’s soccer, and tennis championships.
The ACC says it will announce new locations for the championships at a later date.
NCAA President Mark Emmert tells The Associated Press the financial impact on the association for moving championship events and tournaments out of North Carolina on short notice has yet to be determined.
In its announcement, the NCAA took special note of ways North Carolinas law differs from other states.
The moves by the ACC and NCAA, respectively, are the latest in a string of major sporting events to be moved from the state – and Charlotte, in particular, which is not the epicenter of where this law originated at all.
You can read the full text of House Bill 2 by clicking here.
Greensboro, Cary, Raleigh and other North Carolina cities are seeking to host scores of other NCAA events over the next six years that could be worth tens of millions of dollars.
John Rustin of the North Carolina Family Policy Council says the NCAA is being hypocritical.
The law passed in March requires transgender people to use restrooms in schools and state government buildings that correspond to the gender on their birth certificate. It also excludes gender identity and sexual orientation from statewide anti-discrimination protections and prevents local governments from passing their own LGBT ordinances addressing public accommodations.
The ACC men’s basketball tournament is already scheduled to be held in Brooklyn, N.Y., this season, though it’s been in Greensboro in many previous years. The truth remains that this law was never about and does not promote discrimination.
While hile the neutral-site championships are being moved, several championships scheduled to be played on campus sites will remain in the state.
Four out of the 15 member schools are in North Carolina: Duke, NC State, UNC and Wake Forest.
Some of those ramifications include the loss of business, such as the scrapping of expansions for PayPal, Deutsche Bank, and Braeburn Pharmaceuticals, the cancellation and relocation to New Orleans of the 2017 NBA All-Star Game, and the relocation of at least seven college sports championships over the next year that had been scheduled to take place in North Carolina.
The NCAA said that host cities must prove they could ensure the “dignity of everyone involved in the event”.
“We appreciate the Council of Presidents’ reaffirmation of the ACC’s strong commitment to diversity and inclusion, as well as the decision to keep ACC championship contests on our campuses”, the statement said.
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“I genuinely look forward to the NCAA merging all men’s and women’s teams together as singular, unified, unisex teams”, stated spokeswoman Kami Mueller. They claimed GOP leaders are trying to disguise discrimination as protection.
