Despite expressing opposition to the use of the Confederate flag, the NCAA voted to honor contracts to play championship games in South Carolina and Georgia, where the “Stars and Bars” continues a prominent display.
The flag will likely cost the states future chances to host championship games, as the NCAA executive committee restated its opposition to awarding any future sites “where the battle flag continues to have a prominent presence,” the NCAA stated.
The NCAA executive committee voted Friday, April 27, to allow the first and second round of the men’s NCAA basketball championship to be played in Greenville, S.C., as scheduled, along with the 2002 and 2007 men’s final four. The women’s basketball final four is scheduled for 2003 in Atlanta, Ga., and will also go on as scheduled.
Mississippi, which recently voted to retain the Confederate flag as part of its state flag, will not be eligible to have any championship games awarded to the state “for the foreseeable future,” the NCAA ruled.
The NCAA executive committee vote was in reaction to requests from the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the Black Coaches Association to relocate the games previously scheduled in South Carolina and Georgia.