NC hopes ‘bathroom bill’ deal saves NCAA events

Associated Press

RALEIGH, N.C.

Basketball-mad North Carolina is hoping its move to roll back its “bathroom bill” will help it avoid another costly hit when the NCAA selects four years of championship sites for a variety of sports.

College athletics’ governing body has said that it is deciding on locations for tournaments through the spring of 2022 and that it wouldn’t award any to North Carolina if the law known as House Bill 2 was still on the books.

On Thursday, amid the mounting pressure, North Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature voted to undo HB2, and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper signed the measure into law. But it wasn’t clear if that would satisfy the NCAA, which made no immediate decision on North Carolina’s fate.

NCAA President Mark Emmert said the association would review the legislation before making a decision in the coming days.

The stakes are high for North Carolina: The Associated Press calculated that the state made $71.4 million from 28 neutral-site NCAA events in the five academic years ending last spring. A more lucrative slate of events may be in jeopardy in this latest round of decisions.

Dollars aside, the NCAA sanctions are especially painful for North Carolina, where love of college basketball is part of the state’s very identity.