A new bill in the North Carolina legislature threatens to end the relationship between its state universities’ sports teams and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) over the controversial House Bill 2, Sports Illustrated is reporting.
Both the ACC and NCAA yanked championships out of North Carolina until HB2, also known as the “bathroom bill,” was replaced. HB2—which mandated access to public restrooms would be restricted according to a person’s birth gender rather than gender identity— was highly criticized as discriminatory to the LGBTQ community. Since it was repealed and replaced at the end of March, the ACC said it would reconsider hosting conference championships in North Carolina.
But the new bill states that any intercollegiate athletic association, such as the NCAA, boycotting North Carolina will be refused media rights to campuses that are a part of that conference, according to S.I. And the punishment would be more drastic for the ACC, with a complete severing of ties on the table. This includes University of North Carolina campuses, but would not affect Duke, which is a private school.
“We’re taking this seriously and we’re not going to sit back idly and let them do whatever they want to North Carolina,” Republican representative Mark Brody told CBS North Carolina.
One Democratic leader called the bill “payback” from people who supported House Bill 2, and students told the outlet that they didn’t want to see their schools to leave the ACC.
“I don’t know what the ACC would mean without Carolina,” UNC student Laura Roberson said.
Learn more about the bill here.
—RealClearLife
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