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ACC moves championship game to Orlando
The ACC officially has a new location for its football championship game.
The conference announced Thursday morning that the game will move to Orlando’s Camping World Stadium. The move comes two weeks after the conference, following an NCAA decision, decided to move all of its championships outside of the state of North Carolina because of House Bill 2 (HB2), a state law that requires transgender people to use public bathrooms that match the gender on their birth certificates instead of the gender with which they identify.
Because of HB2, the NCAA made the decision to pull all of its championships from North Carolina. It did not require the ACC to follow suit, but the league’s Council of Presidents said in a statement it did so “to uphold the values of equality, diversity, inclusion and non-discrimination.”
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“Every one of our 15 universities is strongly committed to these values and therefore, we will continue to host ACC Championships at campus sites,” the statement said. “We believe North Carolina House Bill 2 is inconsistent with these values, and as a result, we will relocate all neutral site championships for the 2016-17 academic year. All locations will be announced in the future from the conference office.”
The game is still scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 3 at either 7:45 p.m. or 8 p.m., depending on television arrangements. Those who bought tickets for the game in Charlotte “will have a three-day pre-sale opportunity,” the league said.
The change marks the first ACC Championship Game is in the state of Florida since 2009, when the game was played in Tampa. The first three title games were played in Jacksonville (2005-07) before a two-year move to Tampa in 2008 and 2009.
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Earlier this season, Florida State and Ole Miss played a neutral site game at Camping World Stadium. The stadium also hosts the Citrus Bowl and Russell Athletic Bowl.
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
