NCAA Evaluating Championship Host Cities Amid Concern over LGBT Rights

The NCAA will reportedly step back and evaluate its list of host cities for marquee future events in light of controversial legislative decisions in the state of Indiana and the city of Houston.  

According to the Indianapolis Star's Dana Hunsinger Benbow, NCAA senior vice president for communications Bob Williams issued a statement on Nov. 12 reiterating the organization, which houses its operations in Indianapolis, would examine its relationships with future host cities. 

"We’ll continue to review current events in all cities bidding on NCAA championships and events, as well as cities that have already been named as future host sites, such as Indianapolis," Williams said, per Hunsinger. 

Just before the 2015 Final Four descended upon Indianapolis and Lucas Oil Stadium in April, Indiana passed a law some believed would allow businesses within the state to refuse service to same-sex couples on the basis of religious freedom. 

But before the law was amended, NCAA president Mark Emmert released a statement regarding the religious freedom legislation: 

"

The NCAA national office and our members are deeply committed to providing an inclusive environment for all our events. We are especially concerned about how this legislation could affect our student-athletes and employees.  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. Moving forward, we intend to closely examine the implications of this bill and how it might affect future events as well as our workforce.

"

Governor Mike Pence quickly amended the law in order to protect LGBT rights, according to USA Today. 

More recently, city voters in Houston rejected an anti-discrimination ordinance just months before the 2016 Final Four is slated to tip off at NRG Stadium. 

According to OutSports.com's Cyd Zeigler, NCAA vice president of men's basketball championships Dan Gavitt released a statement earlier this month reiterating college sports' governing body has no plans to strip Houston of this season's Final Four.

That said, Gavitt's statement also indicated the NCAA could hesitate to take one of its biggest events back to Houston if the legislation remains intact: "This vote, however, could impact the NCAA returning to Houston for a future Final Four. There are many factors in a thorough bid process that the NCAA considers when determining what cities will host the Final Four, including but not limited to local, city and state laws and ordinances."

Last November, the NCAA revealed the location of the five Final Four host sites for 2017-21. The festivities are scheduled to hit Phoenix in 2017, San Antonio in 2018, Minneapolis in 2019, Atlanta in 2020 and Indianapolis in 2021.

Following this spring's events and recent developments in Houston, Indianapolis' 2021 selection figures to emerge as the most newsworthy locale so long as debate regarding the polarizing issues continues to rage on.