The N.C.A.A. picked new sites Friday for seven championship events, including early-round games of the Division I men’s basketball tournament next March, relocated from North Carolina over a state law that curbed anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
The first- and second-round basketball games, scheduled for March 17 and 19, were moved to Greenville, S.C., from Greensboro, N.C. Greenville last hosted the tournament in 2002 — the final N.C.A.A. event held in the state after the organization banned the awarding of neutral-site tournaments to the state for flying the Confederate flag on statehouse grounds. That ban ended in July 2015 when the state took down the flag after nine parishioners were killed at a Charleston church.
The N.C.A.A. also announced locations for six other events, including the Division I women’s soccer championship (San Jose, Calif.), the Division I women’s golf regional championships (Athens, Ga.) and the Division I women’s lacrosse championship (Boston).
The N.C.A.A. announced last month that it would move the games out of North Carolina because of a state law that nullified local government ordinances establishing anti-discrimination protections. The law gained widespread attention for its stipulation requiring people in publicly owned buildings to use restrooms that correspond with the gender listed on their birth certificate.
