The University of Louisville will receive four years probation and Coach Rick Pitino faces a five-game ACC suspension as a result of the sex scandal involving the men’s basketball program.
The NCAA ruled a former Louisville director of basketball operations acted unethically when he committed serious violations by arranging for strippers to perform sex acts for recruits, players and others, and did not cooperate with the investigation, according to a Division I Committee on Infractions panel.
In adidtion, the NCAA says Pitino violated NCAA head coach responsibility rules when he did not monitor the activities of his former operations director.
Penalties prescribed by the panel include four years of probation for the university; a suspension from the first five Atlantic Coast Conference games of the 2017-18 season for the head coach; a 10-year show-cause order for the former operations director; a one-year show-cause order for a former program assistant; a vacation of basketball records in which student-athletes competed while ineligible from December 2010 and July 2014; men’s basketball scholarship reductions and recruiting restrictions; a fine of $5,000, plus the university must return money received through conference revenue sharing for its appearances in the 2012 to 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championships.
In 2013, Louisville beat Michigan in the national championship game.
But moving forward, the official record of that game could be vacated by the NCAA. A vacated victory does not mean a new winner is declared, however. Michigan will not be awarded a championship retroactively either way.
Stay tuned as the story develops.
You can read the full NCAA ruling here.
