The NCAA announced men’s basketball tournament games that were removed from Greensboro over North Carolina’s House Bill Two will now be played in Greenville, South Carolina.
Last month the NCAA announced it was relocating seven events from North Carolina because of the state’s controversial House Bill Two. The law forces transgender people to use the bathroom of the gender listed on their birth certificate and not their preferred gender. Removing from Greensboro first and second round games of the Division One Men’s Basketball Tournament, part of the annual phenomenon known to fans across the country as March Madness, was the most high profile of all those moves. The games will now be played at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.
It’s a role reversal for the neighboring states. For years, the NCAA banned tournament and bowl games from being played in South Carolina because the Confederate flag flew over the state capitol in Columbia. That ban was lifted just last year when the flag was taken down. Now it’s North Carolina that the NCAA is leaving. The Atlantic Coast Conference also decided to relocate its football championship game this December from Charlotte. It will now be played in Orlando, Florida. But not all collegiate events are leaving. Last week the Southern Conference announced it will keep both its men’s and women’s basketball championships at the U.S. Cellular Arena in Asheville.
Full list of NCAA championships pulled from North Carolina and where they will now be played -
• 2016 Division I Women’s Soccer Championship, College Cup, Dec. 2 and 4: San Jose, California (Avaya Stadium; West Coast Conference, host)
• 2016 Division III Men’s and Women’s Soccer Championships, Dec. 2 and 3: Salem, Virginia (Kerr Stadium; Old Dominion Athletic Conference, host)
• 2017 Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, first/second-rounds, March 17 and 19: Greenville, South Carolina (Bon Secours Wellness Arena; Southern Conference and Furman University, hosts)
• 2017 Division I Women’s Golf Championships, regional, May 8-10: Athens, Georgia (University of Georgia Golf Course; University of Georgia, host)
• 2017 Division III Men’s and Women’s Tennis Championships, May 22-27: Chattanooga, Tennessee (Champions Tennis Club; University of the South, host)
• 2017 Division I Women’s Lacrosse Championship, May 26 and 28: Boston (Gillette Stadium; University of Massachusetts, Amherst, host)
• 2017 Division II Baseball Championship, May 27-June 3, Grand Prairie, Texas (The Ballpark in Grand Prairie; Angelo State University, host).