The athletic director at the University of Southern California, Pat Haden, said on Tuesday that he would not attend the NCAA’s College Football Playoff committee meeting in Indianapolis this week, due to the new Indiana religious freedom law that may allow discrimination against gays and lesbians.
I am the proud father of a gay son. In his honor, I will not be attending the CFP committee meeting in Indy this week. #EmbraceDiversity
— Pat Haden (@ADHadenUSC) March 31, 2015
Numerous groups and conventions have announced or threatened boycotts of the state, but the NCAA will not move this week’s Final Four games out of Indianapolis and did not indicate that it will move the league’s headquarters from the city either.
“We will work diligently to assure student-athletes competing in, and visitors attending, next week’s Men’s Final Four in Indianapolis are not impacted negatively by this bill,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a statement last week. “Moving forward, we intend to closely examine the implications of this bill and how it might affect future events as well as our workforce.”
ESPN host Keith Olbermann and former NBA star Charles Barkley have both called for the NCAA to pull the Final Four games fro Indiana over the religious freedom bill.
“There are times in the history of this country where sports not only influences our destiny, but leads it, and this is such a time,” Olbermann said on Monday.
Correction: This post originally stated that Pat Haden is the athletic director at the University of South Carolina. He is the athletic director at the University of Southern California.
