OH… How I desperately want this to be!

A handful of North Carolina lawmakers want to hold the NCAA and ACC accountable for their thuggish tactics during the heated days of the HB2/bathroom bill debate.

There have been four bills filed with the NC State House, and one to the Senate that target the NCAA and ACC for using their position to intimidate and exert influence over state policy, all while enjoying tax exempt status.

The first, HB 328, is dubbed the “Athletic Association Accountability Act.”

Filed in March, the bill calls for legislative leaders to file complaints with the IRS against both the NCAA and the ACC “alleging that the organizations have engaged in excessive lobbying activities” and have therefore violated their tax-exempt status.”

Because they have.

Also:

The bill also would require chancellors at University of North Carolina campuses to make available as a public record the name and position of any school employee who holds office or serves on a committee of the NCAA or any member conference, as well what matters were brought before those employees and any decisions or votes they made that could “have an impact on” the school.

Good.

Two other bills, HB 412 and Senate Bill 323 would make records or documents pertaining to membership in or communications between the NCAA or ACC and UNC system schools a matter of public record.

Very good. More transparency is needed. We know our nation’s colleges are little more than liberal indoctrination camps, at this point. The scumbaggery that has infested the NCAA and ACC could use the disinfectant of sunlight.

Another proposal, House Bill 463, calls for a special legislative commission to investigate the NCAA’s treatment of student-athletes, citing “concerns over the welfare and operation of the system to the long-term detriment of the students participating in college athletics.”

In other words, letting liberal bullies have that much control over student athletes can’t be a good thing.

House Bill 728 was the most recent of the bills filed. It was submitted Tuesday, and directs schools in the UNC system to respond to boycotts by the ACC or any other collegiate sports entity by withdrawing from that conference.

 Once the current media rights deal expires in 2036, the ACC would be ineligible for UNC’s media rights for five years after the boycott ends. It also says that the General Assembly has the final say on the membership of any UNC school in any conference or association.

Yeah, that one might be hard to sell.

Then again, the UNC Tar Heels are pretty much the ideal in college sports – especially men’s college basketball (and all the Duke fans can just settle down, now). They’ve made the NCAA a nice bit of coin in merchandising and media.

It’s about time to push back against the bullying of the NCAA and ACC.

Past time, actually. They shouldn’t be driving policy. They should be covering sports.

Of course, as it always is with North Carolina politics, nothing is cut-and-dried, and there is no end to the voices of either approval or dissent.

The NC Values Coalition supported HB2, and still do. They set up a website for their own pushback against the NCAA, at NCAAFoul.com.

“The NCAA and the ACC’s continual and substantial lobbying efforts to influence legislation is a serious violation of the organizations’ tax exempt status under the IRS code,” Values Coalition spokesman Jim Quick said. “Our legislators are right to review the efforts by these multimillion-dollar nonprofit organizations to discourage future lobbying, extortion and economic harm to our state. The NCAA and the ACC should keep their focus on the games.”

Agreed.

Of course, the gay Gestapo in NC, Equality North Carolina, were going to have their say.

“The ACC and NCAA were among countless businesses, events and cities that decided their fans, citizens or employees weren’t safe and free from discrimination under HB2,” Equality NC director Cris Sgro said. “The sad fact remains that this discrimination is still deeply ingrained in North Carolina law by HB142. The sponsors of this bill should be figuring out how to protect all North Carolinians from discrimination in all walks of life if they want to solve the issue at hand. Until we do this, our state will continue to suffer.”

Because they want total compliance, not compromise. They don’t care about the citizens made unsafe by the Charlotte City Ordinance that prompted HB2, in the first place.

To paraphrase Governor Pat McCrory, the Charlotte City Ordinance was about fixing a problem that didn’t exist.

Meanwhile, the issue has really drawn out and laid bare the ugly, fascist tactics of liberals in media, sports, and state government.

Good for North Carolina’s Republican lawmakers for taking steps to defend us from their treachery.