RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) – A bill filed Tuesday by Democratic Senators in the North Carolina General Assembly aims to make the ACC Tournament a public holiday.
Sens. Sarah Crawford (D-Franklin), Natalie Murdock (D-Durham), and DeAndrea Salvador (D-Mecklenburg) are the primary sponsors of Senate Bill 567 – short titled “ACC Basketball Tournament Holiday.”
SB567 would add the Fridays in March when the men’s and women’s ACC basketball tournaments are being played to the state’s list of public holidays.
“This is ACC country, ACC territory. (I’m) born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina. So, the ACC is literally a holiday for us already. So, we might as well formalize that into an official state holiday,” Murdock told CBS 17’s Michael Hyland.
The day would add to North Carolina’s current list of 19 public holidays.
The 2021 men’s ACC basketball tournament final was the second-ever championship game to not have one of the conference’s four North Carolina schools.
The only other time was when Georgia Tech beat Virginia in 1990 for the tournament title.
N.C. State topped Wake Forest 82–80 in overtime in the first ACC Tournament in 1954.
