The Atlantic Coast Conference will host its championships in the state of South Carolina once again.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford said in a statement sent to The Clemson Insider on Friday he applauds the state of South Carolina for removing the Confederate flag from the State House Grounds.

“I personally applaud the decision to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina State Capitol,” Swofford said. “With this change, bids to host future ACC Championships will be accepted from interested South Carolina cities, with no additional stipulations placed on them because of the Confederate flag.”

The ACC, along with the NCAA, banned all pre-determined major sporting events from South Carolina since the Confederate flag debate began in 2001. Within minutes of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signing the legislation to remove the flag on Thursday, the NCAA Board of Governors lifted its boycott of the Palmetto State.

South Carolina removed the flag on Friday.

“The NCAA strongly supports today’s removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House grounds. This step sends an important message of respect for and dignity of every person,” NCAA President Mark Emmert said in a statement on Friday. “As a national association, the NCAA opposes this symbol of racism and since 2001 we have demonstrated our opposition by not playing pre-selected championships in states where the flag was flown prominently. The removal of the Confederate flag now means South Carolina can bid to host future NCAA Championships.”

The NCAA ban applied to all championship events with pre-determined host sites, such as the men’s basketball tournament. Events that were assigned to home teams such as the baseball regionals, the women’s basketball regionals and men’s soccer tournament matches, were exempt from the ban.

The state of South Carolina last hosted an NCAA sanctioned pre-determined tournament in 2002 when Greenville hosted a regional in the Men’s NCAA Basketball Tournament.

The ACC has not allowed South Carolina to host any of its events as well, but it almost happened in 2009. The ACC awarded Myrtle Beach the rights to host the ACC Baseball Championships from 2011-’13, but Swofford said at the time the tournament had originally been awarded to Myrtle Beach with the understanding it “had the blessing of all parties involved.”

That was not the case. The decision drew criticism from the NAACP and the ACC pulled its championships out of Myrtle Beach later that year, and awarded them instead to Greensboro (2012) and Durham (2011 and 2013).

With the ACC’s ban now lifted, cities like Greenville, Charleston and Myrtle Beach can now place bids to host the ACC Baseball or Basketball Championships. From 1987 to 1995, Greenville hosted the ACC Baseball Championships. Those nine years are considered to be some of the most financially successful years in the 40-year history of the tournament.