FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2015, file photo, players and fans cheer during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game between South Carolina and Texas A&M in Columbia, S.C. South Carolina is No. 1 when it comes to fan support at home. While women's college basketball is plagued by empty arenas, interest in Dawn Staley and the Gamecocks has increased exponentially, they averaged 12,540 fans in 14 home games this season. (AP Photo/The State, Tracy Glantz, File)

South Carolina is hosting an NCAA tournament game for the first time in 13 years, and there are more than a few members of the NAACP who aren't happy about it.

The Palmetto State is under an NCAA tournament ban because it flies the Confederate flag on the statehouse grounds. But the organization is allowing the SEC champion Gamecocks to host games this weekend because of a new format delegating home dates to top-16 seeds in March Madness.

So the home team gets to stay home even though the ban is still in effect.

"If they were really serious about supporting the cause of justice, there would be no loopholes," said Lonnie Randolph, president of the state chapter of the NAACP.

Randolph said he accepts the NCAA's decision, but he's upset his group was not informed until it was made.

View photos Confederate flags fly from a house on Church Street in downtown Charleston, S.C., in 2012. (AP) More

"I don't agree with how they handled it," Randolph said. "We didn't have a chance to have a conversation with them about it."

In an email to Yahoo Sports, NCAA spokesman Cameron Schuh explained the decision to allow the Gamecocks to host:

"With this format making it a non-predetermined NCAA championship, schools in South Carolina and Mississippi are now permitted to serve as hosts for those rounds of the championship. Under the previous format, schools in South Carolina and Mississippi were not permitted to host championship games in any round due to the NCAA confederate flag policy, which states that no predetermined NCAA championship site may take place in a state where the confederate flag has a prominent presence."

So games in those two states that are earned through play are allowed, while games that are delegated, or chosen, are not.

Randolph said "this will not cause a major problem with the organization at this time," but he also said he's heard from several members who are upset because "it appears they are softening their approach to injustice."

James Gallman, who lives in South Carolina and is a member of the NAACP national board, called the NCAA's justification "garbage."

"They told us there would be no event held in South Carolina that led up to championships. This is a predetermined event. They could have established other sites."

View photos Dawn Staley is the second person ever to play and coach for a No. 1-ranked team. (USA Today) More

Gallman, who has been on the national board for nine years, said he's "totally opposed" to the games being played in his state under the ban. But he lays some of the blame at his own organization for not mobilizing quickly enough in opposition.

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