Mark Emmert: Monitoring the HB2 Situation
NCAA President Mark Emmert took a little time to address the HB2 law and how it would affect NCAA games in North Carolina.
For President Mark Emmert and the NCAA, the Final Four is another big press event on the calendar. Emmert will go before the press and talk about why athletes aren’t paid, what the enforcement process against North Carolina is doing, and how the NCAA will deal with the future.
With the Tar Heels in the field, Emmert also got to address the HB2 controversy in North Carolina. HB2 is the law that prevented local governments from taking steps to protect LGBT citizens from discrimination. North Carolina is an important state to college basketball with NCAA Tournament games being regularly played there.
Next year Greensboro will be the site of early NCAA Tournament games. This puts the NCAA in a similar situation to the NBA and the All Star Game. Does the NCAA want to support games in a place with discrimination and hurt their business brand with sponsors by association?
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The NCAA had to deal with a similar problem last year when Indiana passed its religious liberty law with the Final Four set to take place in Indianapolis. Indiana quickly passed additional legislation to ensure the rights of LGBT people in order to prevent a sudden pull out.
Emmert was non-committal about whether the NCAA would pull out of Greensboro, but his answers implied more of a wait and see approach according to reports from Dan Greene of Sports Illustrated. However Emmert emphasized that diversity and inclusiveness were very important to the NCAA community and would play a role in where the NCAA decided to host events.
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Losing NCAA Tournament games would be bad for Greensboro and disappointing for basketball fans in the state. Duke and North Carolina often play in those effective home games to big crowds.
One interesting thing that Emmert said was that the NCAA was not going to be proactive in trying to prevent these things in the first place, but would rather react to them as they happened. Emmert does not want the appearance that the NCAA is trying to meddle, just the threat that the NCAA will react if necessary.
On the side, Emmert did mention that the North Carolina amended notice was about a month away. That should mean that we will learn something more about impending sanctions in May. Despite my insistence that basketball be played on Friday, the Final Four will start tomorrow.