In March 2016, the North Carolina General Assembly passed House Bill 2. HB2 has caused a lot of difficulties and issues with sporting events in North Carolina. The bill states that people have to use the restroom that corresponds to their biological sex, regardless of that individual’s gender identity.

Once HB2 passed, the NCAA and ACC removed all NCAA tournament games from the state for the 2017 season.

The NCAA warned the state government that it had until March 30 to repeal the bill in order for bids to be accepted for tournaments before the 2022 season, since the NCAA is currently reviewing bids for the 2018-2022 seasons. The NCAA also stated that this is the last time that it will postpone bids in North Carolina for tournaments.

There are statistics about the economic impact approximating that over $250 million could be lost because of the tournaments leaving the state due to HB2. Some of the big sporting events that have left North Carolina since HB2 was placed into effect are the 2017 NBA All-Star game and potential first and second round games of the NCAA tournament from 2019 and beyond.

Over the past week, the North Carolina legislature has been holding meetings and debates to figure out a solution for this issue. Policymakers were able to produce another bill, House Bill 142 (HB142). HB142 modifies HB2 and prohibits local governments from passing nondiscrimination ordinances until 2020.

ACC Response

On Friday, the ACC held a meeting to vote on whether or not to reconsider North Carolina for tournaments in response to HB142. The conference came to a decision that it will consider North Carolina after the 2017-18 season. Currently it is too late for North Carolina to be considered for the 2017-18 tournaments. The men’s basketball tournament will not be in consideration for North Carolina until 2019 because of the two-year contract the ACC has with Brooklyn, New York. 

NCAA Response

The NCAA executive committee is meeting this week to vote on whether or not HB142 is enough action to bring NCAA tournaments back into North Carolina. If the NCAA doesn’t accept HB142, North Carolina will have to wait until at least 2022. If the NCAA was to accept the reform in HB142, then North Carolina could potentially regain some tournaments back after the 2018 season.

What’s next?

The NCAA stated that it will release a statement this week on the decision that the executive board makes. There are still four major guidelines that the NCAA board of governors outlined as to why North Carolina should be taken out of the bidding for tournaments. HB142 does not seem to meet any of the guidelines that were outlined and many LGBT community political groups are sending letters to the NCAA, stating that they should not be fooled with HB142 as it does no justice for the LGBT community. As for now, we will play the waiting game until the statement is released by the NCAA.