COLUMBIA, S.C.
The NCAA will look into expanding its ban of championship events in South Carolina, possibly disallowing baseball and football teams from hosting postseason games because the Confederate flag is displayed on Statehouse grounds.
Robert Vowels Jr., the head of the NCAA’s Minority Opportunities and Interest Committee, says his group received a request from the Black Coaches Association to expand the ban, which currently prevents predetermined postseason events — like basketball regionals and cross-country championships — from being awarded to South Carolina sites.
“I think it’s something worth looking at,” says Vowels, who is also commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
The NAACP started an economic boycott of South Carolina in 2000 because the Confederate flag flew over the Capitol dome. The Legislature voted that spring to move the flag to the Confederate monument in front of the Statehouse. However, the NAACP has continued its boycott, saying the legislative action did not go far enough.
In 2001, the NCAA announced a two-year moratorium on awarding predetermined postseason events to the state. The governing body has continued the ban indefinitely, saying in 2004 that significant change on the issue had not taken place in South Carolina.
