Yesterday I wrote a piece noting how the Left is increasingly “weaponizing” sports, using the power of the progressive sports elite to punish political dissent, especially social conservative political dissent. Earlier this week, the NCAA pulled championship games from North Carolina over the state’s so-called “bathroom bill.” Today, the Atlantic Coast Conference followed suit:
The Atlantic Coast Conference is following the NCAA’s lead in announcing Wednesday that it has decided to relocate its neutral-site championship events from North Carolina because of the state’s recently enacted legislation regarding gender and bathrooms . . . In a statement, the ACC Council of Presidents said it “reaffirmed our collective commitment to uphold the values of equality, diversity, inclusion and non-discrimination.”
I have zero respect for absurd college sports moralizing and virtue-signaling. As I wrote yesterday:
Before I turn to the larger issues, can we just take a moment to ponder the pathetic absurdity that is the NCAA? This is an organization, mind you, that reaps billions of dollars of rewards off the labor of disproportionately poor and minority students while imposing on them — as a condition for even participating in college sports — economic restrictions not imposed on any other college student. So-called student-athletes don’t own their time, or even the rights to their own names. The vast majority of them don’t go on to play pro sports, so they’re effectively prevented from making money during the time when their earning potential is at its highest. But the NCAA is now suddenly discovering social justice? Please.
When it comes to college conferences, this nonsense can only keep happening if the ultimate academic authorities (largely red-state governors and the boards they appoint) allow it to happen. Will our elected representatives stand aside and allow unelected college presidents to wield the progressive hammer?