The NCAA Board of Governors on Thursday announced due to South Carolina’s impending removal of the Confederate flag from Capitol grounds, the university will now be allowed to bid to host future NCAA championships.

South Carolina president Harry Pastides responded after the decision:

Official statement from the NCAA:

We commend South Carolina lawmakers for taking this action to remove the Confederate flag from the Capitol grounds. For nearly 15 years we specifically protested the flag by not allowing states like South Carolina to host pre-selected NCAA championships. With this impending change, and consistent with our policy, South Carolina may bid to host future championships once the flag no longer flies at the State House grounds.

 

Per various reports, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Thursday signed a bill to pull down the Confederate flag which has stood in Columbia for more than half a century.

The flag will removed from the Capitol’s front lawn during a special ceremony on Friday at 10 a.m., marking the end of a strenuous battle for civil rights that picked up momentum last month in Charleston following the mass murder of nine members of Emanuel AME Church, the oldest African Methodist Episcopal church in the South. South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier called for the battle flag’s removal in 2007, according to the AP:

I realize I’m not supposed to get in the political arena as a football coach, but if anybody were ever to ask me about that damn Confederate flag, I would say we need to get rid of it. I’ve been told not to talk about that. But if anyone were ever to ask me about it, I certainly wish we could get rid of it.

In recent weeks, several key figures at the university echoed the Head Ball Coach’s sentiments, as have other SEC figureheads including Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari: