Technical Tidbits 9/15: ACC pulls neutral site games from North Carolina, will seek new home in face of controversial law

Georgia Tech is largely healthy in advance of this week’s game versus Vanderbilt, but there is one key injury on the offensive line to wonder about: that of Trey Klock. An ankle injury took Klock out of the Mercer game relatively early on, so his status for Saturday is still up in the air. If guys like Andrew Marshall and Parker Braun continue playing at a high level, the line should be good to go. If not, we could see the interior of Derek Mason’s Commodore defensive line cause some serious issues for the Jackets. We are fortunate that Klock’s injury doesn’t seem season-threatening, especially considering how injuries decimated the team last season. Hopefully he will be good to go this weekend.

Following the example set by the NBA and NCAA among other organizations, the ACC has elected to pull all of its championship games out of the state of North Carolina while the controversial House Bill 2 is still in effect. The conference itself is headquartered in North Carolina, and each of its three main sports — football, basketball, and baseball — have played conference championship games at various venues around the state for years now. This presents a unique opportunity for the ACC to diversify its championship locations, ideally to provide a true “neutral field”, but it seems likely that the games will return to North Carolina when all of the political controversy has blown over. In the meantime, we need to find a new home!

As Brett McMurphy indicates, Orlando appears to be the early favorite to land the football championship game. That would be sup-optimal given the strong presence of Florida State fans in the area and the fact that Florida is about as far from most ACC schools as you can get while still being on the East Coast. To me, Nashville seems like a much better option; it is centrally located and would provide a much more neutral game in one of the best cities in the south. Of course, we aren’t sure how those logistics would work out if at all. I trust that the ACC has at least explored that route.

Feel free to check out this interesting article detailing the potential economic impact that the ACC’s decision will have on the state, which could be in excess of $30 million. That likely means that the ACC’s decision to leave hurts North Carolina more than the NCAA’s similar decision, but likely not quite as much as the NBA’s choice to pull the All-Star game out of Charlotte (the economic impact of an NBA All-Star game generally comes in at around $100 million). However, a few years of protest from the ACC very well could surpass that, making it the most devastating loss of the three.

Have a great Thursday!