For those of us who are following the news we are continuing to see concern raised from state leaders, corporate leaders and sport leaders and coaches regarding and concerning the Religious-Objections Law passed by Indiana. With the passage of the law we have sport organizations including the NBA, NCAA, and NASCAR speak out against the law. Sports personalities are speaking out and they include Charles Barkley, Dan Patrick, Reggie Miller and Keith Olbermann. All four participating universities have issued statements against the law.
The contention by theses leaders is the law as written now will allow businesses to deny services to gays and lesbians based solely on religious grounded beliefs. Yesterday, the University of Connecticut men’s basketball coach and last year’s national championship coach Kevin Ollie decided that that he would not travel to the Final Four because of the law. Coach Ollie stated that he would not travel, abiding by the travel ban imposed by Connecticut’s Governor. Additionally, University of Southern California Athletic Director Pat Haden announced that he would not be attending the College Football Playoff meeting this weekend in Indianapolis in protest of the current “religious freedom” law.
The backlash from the passage of the religious freedom law for Indiana is mushrooming and growing with some calling on all sport teams and organizations in the state to cuts ties. There is also a call for the NCAA to move its headquarters and the Final Four out of the state.
In the end, if the law is not amended it surely could affect the women’s Final Four scheduled next year in Indianapolis. Whether you agree or disagree with the law the one thing is clearly that perceptions exists one way or another and sport is directly involved due to the Final Four taking place this weekend. All of the current attention on the law is bad for sport and future sporting events in the state of Indiana because sport is big business.
- Dr. Fred Cromartie is the Director of Doctoral Studies at the United States Sports Academy. He can be reached at cromarti@ussa.edu.