After the ACC boycotted the state of North Carolina over its controversial HB2, a group of Republican legislators have "filed a bill that would withdraw UNC system schools from any athletic conference that boycotts the state in the future," according to Colin Campbell of the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER. House Bill 728 was "filed this week by five GOP House members," and if it "becomes law, public universities would be required to immediately begin the process of leaving their athletic conference if the organization boycotts the state." Revenue from existing media-rights contracts "would be used to pay withdrawal penalties; the withdrawals would take place when the current contracts for media rights expire." One of the bill’s sponsors, Rep. Mark Brody, said that he thinks North Carolina’s public universities "would likely join another conference instead." Brody: "There are a lot of conferences that would love to have North Carolina, including having a national championship basketball team join their conference. None of the other conferences took this radical approach that the ACC did." He added, "I don’t want to hurt athletics in North Carolina. I just don’t support this action that they’ve taken to go beyond athletics and legislate to us." UNC and N.C. State are the only ACC members that would be affected, as the bill "wouldn’t apply to private universities like Duke and Wake Forest." The bill "says the legislature has 'the final authority' on UNC system schools’ membership status in athletic conferences" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 4/13).
OTHER CONFERENCES COULD BE IMPACTED: In Greensboro, Richard Craver reports the bill "could apply to other conferences as well, including the CIAA, which, like the ACC, moved games" in the wake of HB2 (Greensboro NEWS & RECORD, 4/13). Brody said that he did not know whether UNC and N.C. State officials were "consulted before the bill was filed." Meanwhile, ACC Commissioner John Swofford, speaking during an ACC postgraduate scholarship luncheon yesterday, said, "I would expect N.C. State and the University of North Carolina as founding members of the ACC to be in the ACC for many, many years to come." Brody said that he "would have a better idea about the bill's fate next week" (ESPN.com, 4/12).
WHAT ARE THE CHANCES? In Greensboro, Doug Clark writes, "It would be an incredible embarrassment for North Carolina if its top two state universities were forced to leave their home-state athletic conference by an act of the legislature" (Greensboro NEWS & RECORD, 4/13). Meanwhile, the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER's Andrew Carter wrote there is a "zero percent chance of this ever happening." Carter: "Complete waste of time nonsense" (TWITTER.com, 4/12).
