The SEC yesterday announced that the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, S.C., will host its '17 women's basketball tournament, marking the "first major sporting event to come to the Palmetto State since the Confederate flag was removed from the front of the Statehouse grounds," according to Willie Smith III of the GREENVILLE NEWS. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said that the league "immediately looked into the possibility of bringing the tournament to the state following the flag being lowered on June 10." Smith notes Greenville was "actively recruiting men’s and women’s sporting events at the time as well, which made for a perfect marriage." The tournament was last played in Greenville in '05 (GREENVILLE NEWS, 5/17). In Columbia, David Cloninger notes yesterday's announcement "opens the door for several other pre-determined conference and NCAA events to be held in South Carolina in the future." Sankey: “When the change happened last summer and the flag came down, we had a conversation in our office and with our leadership about the opportunity to return now that one of the hurdles had been removed from the table. We had a bit of a map where we thought we were going to head in 2017, but it was a relatively quick pivot" (Columbia STATE, 5/17).
