ACC to relocate conference championships, other events in response to 'HB2' legislation
The North Carolina-based Atlantic Coast Conference on Wednesday joined the NCAA in moving championship events out of the state in response to the state’s controversial “HB2” legislation. Most prominent of the neutral-site championships to be relocated is the ACC football title game, which is scheduled to be played Dec. 3 in Charlotte.
The league’s council of presidents said in a statement released Wednesday afternoon: “As members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the ACC Council of Presidents reaffirmed our collective commitment to uphold the values of equality, diversity, inclusion and non-discrimination. Every one of our 15 universities is strongly committed to these values and therefore, we will continue to host ACC Championships at campus sites. We believe North Carolina House Bill 2 is inconsistent with these values, and as a result, we will relocate all neutral site championships for the 2016-17 academic year. All locations will be announced in the future from the conference office.”
Sources told Yahoo Sports that some ACC member schools will push for the league to continue targeting the New York and Washington, D.C., markets for relocated championships. That has been an area of emphasis for the conference in recent years, sparked in part by the inclusion of former Big East schools Syracuse, Pittsburgh, Notre Dame, Louisville and Boston College.
Orlando is interested in hosting the football title game but would have to work out a conflict with Florida high school state championships in order to do so.
Another potential location for the game could be the Washington Redskins’ FedEx Field in Landover, Md. The Redskins do not have home games between Nov. 20 and Dec. 19.
The other ACC championships being relocated are women’s soccer, men’s and women’s swimming and diving, women’s basketball, men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s golf, and baseball.
“The ACC Council of Presidents made it clear that the core values of this league are of the utmost importance, and the opposition to any form of discrimination is paramount,” commissioner John Swofford said. “Today’s decision is one of principle, and while this decision is the right one, we recognize there will be individuals and communities that are supportive of our values as well as our championship sites that will be negatively affected. Hopefully, there will be opportunities beyond 2016-17 for North Carolina neutral sites to be awarded championships.”
The NBA began the process of sporting entities boycotting the state of North Carolina in response to the controversial “bathroom bill,” pulling its 2017 All-Star game out of Charlotte. But the more damaging blows may have been dealt this week, first by the NCAA relocating seven championship events from the state – including the men’s basketball tournament from Greensboro – and now this move by a league that has had its headquarters in Greensboro since its inception in 1953.
Playing NCAA tourney basketball games in-state had become a routine perk for Duke and North Carolina over the years, and the ACC football title game has been played in Charlotte since 2010.
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