Georgia Tech school president G.P. “Bud” Peterson has a central role in the ACC’s deliberation over its response to a North Carolina state law that has already led the NBA and NCAA to pull marquee events from the state. Many have found the law – known as HB2 – to be discriminatory against LGBT people.
As chair of the NCAA board of governors, Peterson helped steer the NCAA's response to the law that was made public Monday – taking seven championship events out of North Carolina. Peterson was elected to the position in August. The board is the NCAA's highest governing body and oversees issues across the association's three divisions.
Peterson was quoted in a news release issued by the NCAA.
“As representatives of all three divisions, the Board of Governors must advance college sports through policies that resolve core issues affecting student-athletes and administrators,” Peterson said in a statement. “This decision is consistent with the NCAA’s longstanding core values of inclusion, student-athlete well-being and creating a culture of fairness.”
The NCAA’s decision, as well as the NBA taking the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte, N.C., and entertainers such as Bruce Springsteen canceling dates for performances in the state, put pressure on the ACC to heighten its response. The league, based in Greensboro, N.C., holds several league championship events in the state, including the conference football championship game in Charlotte. The league’s presidents are meeting this week in Clemson, S.C. – the meeting had already been scheduled – and the ACC response to HB2 was already on the agenda.
As the presidents meet, Peterson might be expected to share the NCAA’s perspective as well as represent Georgia Tech’s interests and stance.
At the conference's spring meetings in May, Swofford said the league wasn't considering pulling scheduled ACC events from the state because of HB2 but said that future events could be impacted.
In a statement Monday following the NCAA’s actions, Swofford said that the matter was to be discussed at this week’s meetings of presidents, so that it was premature to make a decision on ACC championship sites. The last sentence of his statement indicated which way the wind might blow at the meeting.
“On a personal note, it’s time for this bill to be repealed as it’s counter to basic human rights.”
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