Minnesota baseball teams are barred from playing in the NCAA Division II national baseball tournament and National Junior College Athletic Association Division III World Series due to political controversy surrounding recent legislation in North Carolina requiring that bathroom use be limited to one’s birth gender.
Teams being affected are under the umbrella of the MnSCU system – the governing agency for all Minnesota universities and two-year colleges (aside from the University of Minnesota system).
MnSCU communications director Doug Anderson said no teams will participate in tournaments in North Carolina this spring. This move comes after Governor Dayton announced he is banning all “nonessential state travel” to North Carolina, in order to protest the transgender bathroom laws. While Governor Dayton did not explicitly ban MnSCU from traveling, its leadership implemented its own travelling ban for its employees. That ban now extends to the college baseball players as well.
MnSCU teams have been active in the national tournaments. The Division II national championships have taken place in North Carolina since 2009, and according to the Star Tribune, MSU Mankato “has been in that field four times — most recently in 2014.” The article goes on to explain that “The Mavericks were national runners-up in 2013” and that “St. Cloud State was one game away from qualifying last year.”
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