Conference USA says it won’t hold championship events in MS until state flag is changed
Conference USA announced Monday that it is prohibiting all of its championship events from taking place in the state of Mississippi until the Confederate emblem is removed from the state’s flag.
The conference said its Board of Directors, which includes university presidents, has approved the move.
Southern Miss is the lone Mississippi representative in C-USA and one of the league’s charter members. USM often hosts the conference baseball tournament and the football program is consistently in the hunt to play in the championship game.
On June 1, C-USA announced that the 2022 conference baseball tournament would take place in Hattiesburg. That event seems unlikely to take place at USM’s Pete Taylor Park unless changes are made.
The conference baseball tournament has taken place in Mississippi in eight of the last nine years in either Biloxi, Hattiesburg or Pearl.
The NCAA announced last week that it was barring all of its championship events from taking place in Mississippi until the flag is changed.
The SEC warned last week that it could ban all of its conference championship events from taking place in Mississippi until the flag is taken down.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has been adamant that he will not sign off on a bill that changes the state flag. He has said that the flag should only be changed through a referendum vote by Mississippians.
This story was originally published June 22, 2020 at 11:33 AM.
