The Atlantic Coast Conference is relocating all eight of its neutral site championships that were going to be held in North Carolina in 2016-17, including the football championship game, the conference announced Wednesday. It will keep all the championship events held on ACC campuses, though.

The new locations will be announced at a later date.

“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,” the conference council of presidents said in a statement. “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.”

The move comes two days after the NCAA announced it will relocate its seven championship events from North Carolina because of House Bill 2, which most notably forces everyone to use the bathroom of the sex listed on their birth certificate and prevents transgender people from using the bathrooms of their associated gender.

“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,” ACC commissioner John Swofford said. “Hopefully, there will be opportunities beyond 2016-17 for North Carolina neutral sites to be awarded championships.”

Syracuse University’s chancellor Kent Syverud and director of athletics John Wildhack both expressed their support of the conference’s decision in statements.

“Syracuse University is committed to the core values of diversity, inclusion and respect,” Syverud said. “The University studied this issue and supports the decision of the ACC.”

“Diversity and inclusion are hallmarks at Syracuse University and within Syracuse Athletics,” Wildhack said. “We support the decision by the ACC presidents.”

Below is the list of ACC championships that will be moved:

• Women’s Soccer
• Football
• Men’s and Women’s Swimming and Diving
• Women’s Basketball
• Men’s and Women’s Tennis
• Women’s Golf
• Men’s Golf
• Baseball

 

Published on September 14, 2016 at 1:34 pm

Contact Jon: jrmettus@syr.edu | @jmettus