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NCAA’s Mark Emmert calls Indiana’s religious freedom bill ‘especially concerning’

Mark Emmert

Mark Emmert (AP Photo)

AP

NCAA president Mark Emmert released a statement on Thursday saying that the association is “especially concerned” about a new law in Indiana that grants businesses the right to turn away gay and lesbian customers due to religious freedom.

“The NCAA national office and our members are deeply committed to providing an inclusive environment for all our events,” Emmert said in the statement. “We are especially concerned about how this legislation could affect our student-athletes and employees.”

The NCAA is headquartered in Indianapolis, which just so happens to be where the Final Four is being held next week.

“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,” Emmert added. “Moving forward, we intend to closely examine the implications of this bill and how it might affect future events as well as our workforce.”

The LGBT Sports coalition has called on the NFL, NCAA, Big Ten, USA Gymnastics and USA Swimming to all move sporting events out of the state of Indiana as a result of this bill.