Opinion: The House Bill 2 compromise bent to the NCAA’s wishes

The National Collegiate Athletic Association has too much power. Aside from the other issues people might have with the NCAA, it is clear it can have direct influence on non-sports related political policy.

This extraordinary power was made abundantly clear last week with the expiration of the deadline the association had handed to the North Carolina General Assembly concerning the repeal of controversial House Bill 2.

The NCAA makes all the calls in determining the location for NCAA tournaments, including the one that climaxed yesterday in the National Championship game in Phoenix.

The economic boon from hosting an NCAA-sponsored championship as big as the one last night is tremendous. Businesses like hotels, restaurants, bars, parking facilities and gas stations benefit greatly from hosting thousands of sports fans. Clearly, a political institution has an incentive to appease the NCAA — even here in North Carolina.

Last week, the Associated Press released a projected cost of HB2, estimated at around $3.76 billion, some of which would have come from the NCAA’s refusal to host tournaments in the state.

It is clear from the AP’s analysis that the economic power of the NCAA is great. This board argues that its power is too great. First, let’s not forget that the economic impacts the NCAA put onto North Carolina affected all of us — including LGBTQ-owned businesses.

This impact might have been justified if the NCAA followed their actions up with high profile advocacy for the community they claimed to help, but it seems the association had little interest in getting that involved.

The House Bill 2 compromise is indicative of the way many liberals framed the issue as only economic. The real evil of HB2 had less to do with money and more to do with systematically denying people their rights. While this isn’t necessarily the NCAA’s fault, the association chose to exploit it.

We hate that our state legislature was only able to compromise under economic threat from the NCAA, we hate that the compromise was rushed and we hate that the compromise does not address concerns put forth by the state’s LGBTQ citizens.

This is not what good legislating looks like. This is what happens when an organization with incredible power holds our legislature hostage.

We all know the NCAA exploits student-athletes, but now it seems the NCAA exploits our legislature as well.

We need leaders willing to stand up to economic and political pressure until all people are treated equally.