Indiana’s controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act has sparked outrage in every corner of our culture, including in sports, where there have been calls for the NCAA to pull the Final Four from Indianapolis. All four of the college teams competing on Saturday released statements expressing their disagreement with the law, as did NCAA President Mark Emmert. And USC athletic director Pat Haden tweeted he won’t be attending the College Football Playoff meeting this week.
I am the proud father of a gay son. In his honor, I will not be attending the CFP committee meeting in Indy this week. #EmbraceDiversity
— Pat Haden (@ADHadenUSC) March 31, 2015
But perhaps the boldest protest has come from UConn head coach Kevin Ollie, who is refusing to travel to Indianapolis at all, abiding by a law Connecticut Governor Dannel P. Malloy signed on Monday banned the state from spending money on travel to Indiana.
University President Susan Herbst issued a statement Tuesday evening in support of the governor’s ban and said neither Ollie nor any other member of the basketball staff would travel to Indianapolis.
“UConn is a community that values all of our members and treats each person with the same degree of respect, regardless of their background and beliefs and we will not tolerate any other behavior.” Herbst said.
While UConn is out of this year’s tournament, the Huskies won the title last year. Ollie was scheduled to attend several events around the tournament later this week along with participating in coaches meetings.
