Eddie Timanus

USA TODAY Sports

The Atlantic Coast Conference announced Wednesday that it would move its neutral site championships out of North Carolina for the 2016-17 season in response to the state's controversial House Bill 2.

The law prevents cities and counties from passing protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity. And public schools must require bathrooms or locker rooms be designated for use only by people based on their biological sex.

The ACC follows the lead of the NCAA, which announced Monday that it would relocate its championships for 2016-17.

The NBA moved its the All-Star game in Charlotte for the same reasons in July and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski called the law "embarrassing" in an interview with USA TODAY Sports.

NCAA to move 7 championships from North Carolina due to HB2 law

“The ACC Council of Presidents made it clear that the core values of this league are of the utmost importance, and the opposition to any form of discrimination is paramount. Today’s decision is one of principle, and while this decision is the right one, we recognize there will be individuals and communities that are supportive of our values as well as our championship sites that will be negatively affected," ACC Commissioner John Swofford said in a statement. "Hopefully, there will be opportunities beyond 2016-17 for North Carolina neutral sites to be awarded championships.”

The original dates and sites for the neutral site championships affected:

Women’s soccer: Nov. 4, 6; Cary

Football: Dec. 3; Charlotte

Men’s and women’s swimming and diving: Feb. 15-18; Greensboro

Women’s basketball: March 1-5; Greensboro

Men’s and women’s tennis: April 26-30; Cary

Women’s golf: April 21-23, Greensboro

Men’s golf: April 21-23; New London

Baseball: May 23-28; Durham

NCAA may have to pay up for pulling championships out of North Carolina

The conference said it would have further announcements on where these championships will be played.

“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," said a joint statement from the ACC 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.”

Hudson Taylor, the executive director of LGBT advocacy group Athlete Ally, praised the decision.

“The ACC’s decision to pull its championships from North Carolina is yet another win for the LGBT community and is an acknowledgement that athletic championships should only be awarded to those states and cities that champion LGBT equality," Taylor said in a statement. “I am hopeful that losing the NBA All-Star game, the NCAA championships and now the ACC championships, will once and for all convince North Carolina legislators that they are on the wrong side of history and that LGBT athletes and fans deserve to be protected and respected on the field and under the law.”

Swofford said the league is still in the early stages of identifying replacement sites.

Finding a football stadium as ACC-friendly as Charlotte might be difficult. The championship game’s been played at Bank of America Stadium for the past six seasons with an average attendance of 69,641. In the previous two seasons (2008-09) the game was held at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa and averaged 49,412 spectators.

“We’ll do what we need to do,” Swofford said. “It’s a challenge, our next challenge.”

Swofford said the ACC would consider the issue again in the spring if nothing changed in North Carolina’s law. Such prohibitions can last for quite some time: The NCAA’s ban on South Carolina hosting neutral-site championships for flying the Confederate flag on Statehouse grounds lasted from 2001 until it came down last summer.

Contributing: Scott Gleeson; and The Associated Press