The NCAA’s discrimination double standard

Each week, The World and Everything in It features a “Culture Friday” segment, in which Executive Producer Nick Eicher discusses the latest cultural news with John Stonestreet, president of the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Here is a summary of this week’s conversation.

Earlier this week, just hours after the University of North Carolina won the NCAA men’s basketball championship, the organization reluctantly restored North Carolina’s eligibility to host NCAA events. The official body of college sports controls billions of dollars and had boycotted North Carolina because of the so-called transgender bathroom law.

The state repealed the law in a compromise measure that was just barely enough for the NCAA to call off the boycott.

“This new law has minimally achieved a situation where we believe NCAA championships may be conducted in a nondiscriminatory environment,” the NCAA said in an official statement.

John Stonestreet said the affair pointed out the hypocrisy of the NCAA.

“Does this mean suddenly that there’s not going to be a men’s tournament and a women’s tournament, that they’re going to combine them?” he asked. “After all, they boycotted a state for not allowing men and women to go into each other’s restrooms, but they don’t allow men and women to play on each other’s sports teams.”

Stonestreet called the moves by the NCAA “a bunch of posturing and a bunch of noise,” noting the organization was looking for its first possible chance to start hosting events in the state again.

“They need the financial market that North Carolina provides,” Stonestreet said. “Their economic prospects as a state are as good as any state.”

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