RALEIGH, N.C. -- After the Atlantic Coastal Conference boycotted North Carolina for sporting events when state lawmakers passed House Bill 2, lawmakers are trying to put pressure on the Greensboro-based conference to make sure that doesn’t happen again.
House Bill 728 clarifies the general assembly has the final authority for membership of The University of North Carolina Schools in any intercollegiate athletic association or conference.
The bill would pull the University of North Carolina and North Carolina State University out of the ACC if the conference boycotts the state again.
If any conference boycotted the state, the bill would prevent UNC, NC State or any other state-owned school from extending any grant of media rights to that conference. The schools would also provide a written notice that they intend to leave the conference.
Representative Mark Brody is one of the people who sponsored the bill.
“I prefer if there is a problem, we negotiated through it and get it done but if they are going to land the first punch, they are going to know that North Carolina is going to swing back,” Brody said.
ACC Commissioner John Swofford was in Greensboro Wednesday for an awards luncheon. He says he is not very familiar with the bill.
“Our conference is going to act in ways that our council or presidents deem are appropriate in terms of its values,” Swofford said. “That's how the league will be run, that's how the league has always been run and will be in the future.”
Brody says the next step is to get the bill through the House and to the Senate by next week.
FOX8 reached out to the University of North Carolina System and they would not comment on the bill.
North Carolina lawmakers file bill that would pull #UNC + #NCState from @theACC if #ACC boycotts the state again after #HB2 fallout. @myfox8 pic.twitter.com/6xDhUZGFvz
— Alex Rose (@AlexRoseNews) April 12, 2017
