The ACC is relocating all neutral-site championships scheduled to be contested in the state of North Carolina, including the ACC Football Championship, in the 2016-2017 sports year.
The move comes a day after the NCAA made a similar announcement that it will not hold postseason championship games in the state in response to the North Carolina legislature passage of a bill that erases protections for equal protection under the law for the LGBT community.
A statement was released Wednesday afternoon by the ACC Council of Presidents announcing the decision.
“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.”
Clemson President James P. Clements, chair of the ACC Council of Presidents, said the group “the decision to move the neutral site championships out of North Carolina while HB 2 remains the law was not an easy one, but it is consistent with the shared values of inclusion and non-discrimination at all of our institutions.”
ACC Commissioner John Swofford said the 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.”
“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,” Swofford said.
UVA athletics director Craig Littlepage said the school’s athletics department is “supportive of the decision of the Atlantic Coast Conference and the ACC Council of Presidents to uphold our collective commitment to inclusion, diversity, equality, and non-discrimination by moving neutral site conference championship events from the state of North Carolina for the 2016-17 academic year.”
“We hope this action will lead to productive dialogue and actions that will enable neutral site championships to return to the state in the future,” Littlepage said.
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