The NCAA executive committee approved the two-year moratorium Friday on selecting South Carolina sites for events such as men's basketball tournament games.

South Carolina lawmakers, under pressure of a boycott by the NAACP, removed the Confederate flag last year from atop the Statehouse dome and House and Senate chambers. However, the Legislature raised a similar flag at the Confederate Soldier Monument on Statehouse grounds.

The NCAA's moratorium will begin with the 2002-03 academic year and run through 2003-04. The NCAA had earlier announced that events already awarded to South Carolina site would not be moved.

The National Association of Basketball Coaches had wanted the NCAA to move the first and second rounds of the 2002 men's basketball regionals from Greenville, S.C.

Among the criteria the NCAA said would be reviewed during the moratorium was whether South Carolina could provide ''an atmosphere of respect for and sensitivity to the dignity of every person.''

Championship events that are determined by a team's seeding or record will continued to be allowed in South Carolina.

The executive committee also decided that it would amend its policies for approving NCAA certified events, such as bowl games and preseason basketball games, in South Carolina and Mississippi, which includes the Confederate symbol in its state flag. Events already certified would not be affected by the change.

In April, the NCAA prohibited awarding predetermined championship sites in Mississippi.