John Swofford

The ACC and commissioner John Swofford announced Wednesday that its football championship, and a number of other ACC events, will be moved out of North Carolina due to the state's anti-LGBT HB2 law.

(Associated Press)

Syracuse, N.Y. — The ACC followed musicians, the NBA and the NCAA on Wednesday, when the league announced that it would pull its football championship out of North Carolina due to the state's controversial House Bill 2.

The ACC will move every championship event during 2016-17 that isn't played on a college campus with football being the most high-profile and most impactful. The decision will also impact women's basketball, tennis, swimming, golf and baseball. Sites for those championships have not been determined. The men's basketball tournament was already scheduled to be played in Brooklyn.

The league decided that it will allow ACC championship events that were scheduled to be held on college campuses in North Carolina.

"As members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the ACC Council of Presidents reaffirmed our collective commitment to uphold the values of equality, diversity, inclusion and non-discrimination," the ACC said in a statement from the league's Council of Presidents. "Every one of our 15 universities is strongly committed to these values and therefore, we will continue to host ACC Championships at campus sites. We believe North Carolina House Bill 2 is inconsistent with these values, and as a result, we will relocate all neutral site championships for the 2016-17 academic year. All locations will be announced in the future from the conference office."

Since it was passed, House Bill 2 has been protested by a number of high-profile individuals and groups. Their protests have largely come in the form of boycotts, attempting to force change in the laws by hurting the state financially by moving or cancelling events.

Musician Bruce Springsteen cancelled a show in North Carolina in April, while the NBA chose to move its All-Star Game in July. The ACC's need to do something was telegraphed earlier this week when the NCAA announced on Monday that it would pull its events from North Carolina.

The league's presidents came to their decision during conversations on Wednesday morning and over the course of two days of communication.

:"The ACC presidents engaged in a constructive, wide-ranging and vigorous discussion of this complex issue over the past two days," said Clemson's James Clements, the chair of the group. "The decision to move the neutral site championships out of North Carolina while HB 2 remains the law was not an easy one but it is consistent with the shared values of inclusion and non-discrimination at all of our institutions."

While discussion of HB2 has largely focused on gender and the use of bathrooms, the state law, which was passed in March, also nullified the ability of cities to enact legislation to protect the rights of gay and transgender people. For instance, cities could no longer enact legislation that would keep employers from hiring or firing employees based on gender or sexual orientation.

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